Southend (UK Parliament constituency)

Southend
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Southend East Southend West
Created from	South East Essex

Southend was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Southend-on-Sea in Essex. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Southend in Essex, 1918-50

The constituency was created in 1918 by splitting the town of Southend from the existing constituency of South East Essex. The sitting MP for that constituency, Rupert Guinness, was elected to the new constituency. It was abolished for the 1950 general election, when it was divided into the new constituencies of Southend East and Southend West.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member[1]	Party
	1918	Rupert Guinness, 2nd Earl of Iveagh	Conservative
	1927 by-election	Gwendolen Guinness, Countess of Iveagh	Conservative
	1935	Henry Channon	Conservative
	1950	constituency abolished: see Southend East and Southend West

Guinness family

For most of the 20th century, this constituency and one of its successors was held by four members of the Guinness family. When Rupert Guinness was elevated to the Peerage upon the death of his father, he was succeeded by his wife, Gwendolen. When she retired in 1935 she was succeeded by her eldest daughter's husband, Henry "Chips" Channon. Channon continued to serve as MP for one of the successor constituencies, Southend West, until his death in 1958. That seat was then represented by his son, Paul Channon, until 1997. Because of this connection, the seat became known in the media as "Guinness-on-Sea".^[2]

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1918: Southend [3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Hon. Rupert Edward Cecil Lee Guinness	12,392	63.3
	Independent Conservative	Joseph Francis	4,242	21.6
	Liberal	Charlton Hubbard	2,965	15.1
Majority			8,150	41.7
Turnout				53.9
	Unionist hold		Swing

• endorsed by the Coalition Government.

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: Southend [4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Rupert Guinness, Viscount Elveden	17,920	61.9	-1.4
	Liberal	H G Walker	11,039	38.1	+23.0
Majority			6,881	23.8	-17.9
Turnout				68.0	+14.1
	Unionist hold		Swing	-12.2

General Election 1923: Southend [5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Rupert Guinness, Viscount Elveden	15,566	50.2	-11.7
	Liberal	John Douglas Young	15,453	49.8	+11.7
Majority			113	0.4	-23.4
Turnout				69.3	+1.3
	Unionist hold		Swing	-11.7

General Election 1924: Southend [6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Rupert Guinness, Viscount Elveden	23,417	62.5
	Liberal	John Douglas Young	10,924	29.1
	Labour	Sydney Alexander Moseley	3,144	8.4	n/a
Majority			12,493	33.4
Turnout				79.3
	Unionist hold		Swing

Southend by-election, 1927
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Gwendolen Florence Mary Guinness, Countess of Iveagh	21,221	54.6	-7.9
	Liberal	Hon. Dougall Meston	11,912	30.7	+1.6
	Labour	J.E. Harper	4,777	12.3	+3.9
	Independent Conservative	E. Augustine Hailwood	917	2.4	+2.4
Majority			9,309	23.9
Turnout				73.2
	Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1929: Southend [7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Gwendolen Florence Mary Guinness, Countess of Iveagh	27,605	55.8	+1.2
	Liberal	Hon. Dougall Meston	21,884	44.2	+13.5
Majority			5,721	11.6
Turnout				67.0
	Unionist hold		Swing

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Southend [8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gwendolen Florence Mary Guinness, Countess of Iveagh	46,564	85.7
	Labour	Albert Eric Bechervaise	7,741	14.3
Majority			38,823	71.4
Turnout				68.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1935: Southend [9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Channon	36,865	65.1
	Liberal	Murray Gladstone	11,934	21.1
	Labour	Miss Helen M Keynes	7,796	13.8
Majority			24,931	44.0
Turnout			56,595	65.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1939/40

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the Autumn of 1939, the following candidates had been selected;

• Conservative: Henry Channon
• Liberal: Philip Whitehead^[10]
• Labour: GR Sandison^[11]

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Southend [12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Channon	23,712	44.6
	Labour	GR Sandison	20,635	38.9
	Liberal	Lt-Col. H Douglas Tanner	8,735	16.5
Majority			3,077	5.7
Turnout				73.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 4)
2. Obituary: Lord Kelvedon | Obituaries | Guardian Unlimited
3. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
4. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
5. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
6. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
7. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
8. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
9. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
10. The Liberal Magazine, 1939
11. Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939
12. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig