Silvertown (UK Parliament constituency)

Silvertown
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
Silvertown in Essex, showing boundaries used from 1918 to 1950.
County	Essex
1918–1950
Number of members	One
Replaced by	West Ham South
Created from	West Ham South

Silvertown was a borough constituency returning a single Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom through the first-past-the-post voting system. The constituency was one of four divisions of the Parliamentary Borough of West Ham, which had at the time the same boundaries as the County Borough of West Ham. Although administratively separate since 1889, the area was formally part of the county of Essex; since 1965 it has been part of the London Borough of Newham in Greater London.

The creation of the constituency was recommended by the Boundary Commission in a report issued in 1917, and formally created by the Representation of the People Act 1918. It came into existence at the 1918 general election. As the borough of West Ham had only 120,586 electors on 15 October 1946, the relevant date for the subsequent Boundary Commission review, the borough was only entitled to two Members of Parliament; North and South divisions were recommended. As a consequence Silvertown was abolished as a separate constituency by the Representation of the People Act 1948 and went out of existence at the 1950 general election.

Boundaries

Silvertown was based on the two wards of Custom House and Silvertown (based either side of the Royal Victoria Dock), and Tidal Basin, which was to its north-west. The large wards in the southern County Borough of West Ham at the time of the 1917 Boundary Commission review made it necessary to split one ward across two constituencies, or else the divisions of West Ham would have had significantly different sizes. The ward which was split was the Canning Town ward, the southern part of which was included in Silvertown: the commissioners drew a line along the centre of the Woolwich branch of the Great Eastern Railway (now the North London Line) from Canning Town station north to join up with Star Lane (near the future Star Lane DLR station), then east along Star Lane, to join up with the ward boundary at Hermit Lane and Beckton Road.^[1]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	John Joseph Jones	National Socialist
	1918		Labour
	1940 by-election	James Henry Hollins	Labour
	1945	Louis Comyns	Labour
	1950	constituency abolished

Election results

1918 General Election: Silvertown[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Socialist Party	John Joseph Jones	6,971	51.6
	Coalition Conservative	Lieut.-Col. Thomas Walter Colby Carthew, D.S.O.	4,259	31.5
	Labour	David John Davis	2,278	16.9
Majority			2,712	20.1
	National Socialist Party win (new seat)

1922 General Election: Silvertown[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Joseph Jones	11,874	73.1
	Conservative	Charles George Lewis	4,361	26.9	-4.6
Majority			7,513	46.2
	Labour gain from National Socialist Party

1923 General Election: Silvertown [4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Joseph Jones	12,777	81.3	+8.2
	Unionist	Charles George Lewis	2,948	18.7	-8.2
Majority			9,829	62.6	+16.4
Turnout				45.9
	Labour hold		Swing	+8.2

1924 General Election: Silvertown[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Joseph Jones	15,962	81.1	-0.2
	Conservative	Edward Doran	3,732	18.9	+0.2
Majority			12,230	62.2
	Labour hold		Swing	+0.2

1929 General Election: Silvertown[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Joseph Jones	23,451	85.7	+4.6
	Unionist	Luke William Burke Teeling	3,903	14.3	-4.6
Majority			19,548	71.4	+9.2
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing	-4.6

1931 General Election: Silvertown[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Joseph Jones	19,851	77.8	-7.9
	Conservative	Mrs. Elinora Elisa Fiaschi Tennant	5,654	22.2	+7.9
Majority			14,197	55.6
	Labour hold		Swing	+7.9

1935 General Election: Silvertown[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Joseph Jones	18,177	81.0	+3.2
	Conservative	Mrs. Elinora Elisa Fiaschi Tennant	4,276	19.0	-3.2
Majority			13,901	62.0
	Labour hold		Swing	-3.2

By-election, 22 February 1940: Silvertown[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Henry Hollins	14,343	92.8	+11.8
	Communist	Harry Pollitt	966	6.2
	British Union of Fascists	Thomas P. Moran	151	1.0
Majority			13,377	86.6
	Labour hold		Swing

1945 General Election: Silvertown[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Dr Louis Comyns	9,358	91.3	+10.3
	Conservative	Edward Elverston	494	4.8	-14.2
	Independent	Arthur William Davies	401	3.9
Majority			8,864	86.5
	Labour hold		Swing	-12.3

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 3)

1. "103. Parliamentary Borough of West Ham" in "Report of the Boundary Commission (England and Wales)", vol. III (Cd. 8758).
2. "Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench, 1921", p. 267.
3. "Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench, 1923", p. 232.
4. "Return of Election Expenses", HCP 151.
5. "Return of Election Expenses", HCP 1.
6. "Return of Election Expenses", HCP 114.
7. "Return of Election Expenses", HCP 109.
8. "Return of Election Expenses", HCP 150.
9. "Labour Victory At Silvertown", The Times, 24 February 1940, p. 6.
10. "Return of Election Expenses", HCP 128.