Willesden West (UK Parliament constituency)

Willesden West
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1918–February 1974
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Brent East and Brent South
Created from	Harrow

Willesden West was a borough constituency in the parliamentary county of Middlesex, adjoining the County of London and forming part of the London conurbation. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

History

Willesden West constituency within the parliamentary county of Middlesex, showing boundaries used from 1918-45.

Willesden West constituency within the parliamentary county of Middlesex, showing boundaries used from 1945-50.

Until 1918, Willesden formed part of the Harrow Division of Middlesex. The constituency was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918, and was first contested in the general election of that year. The boundaries were altered by further legislation in 1948 and the constituency was abolished when new seats based on the London Boroughs created by the London Government Act 1963 came into use for the February 1974 general election. The area of the constituency was divided between the two new seats of Brent East and Brent North.^[1]

Boundaries

The 1918 legislation created a new parliamentary borough of Willesden, identical in area with the urban district of Willesden, and divided it into two single-member divisions. Willesden West comprised five of the eleven wards of the urban district: Church End, Harlesden, Roundwood, Stonebridge and Willesden Green. The remaining six wards formed the Willseden East division. In 1933 Willesden was incorporated as a municipal borough, although this made no change to the parliamentary divisions.^[1]

When constituencies were redrawn prior to the 1950 general election, Willesden West was redefined in terms of seven wards of the borough as they then existed: Church End, Harlesden, Kensal Rise, Manor, Roundwood, Stonebridge and Willesden Green. Kensal Rise had previously formed part of Willesden East.^[1]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Charles Pinkham	Conservative
	1922	George James Furness	Conservative
	1923	Samuel Viant	Labour
	1931	Mavis Tate	Conservative
	1935	Samuel Viant	Labour
	1959	Laurie Pavitt	Labour
Feb 1974		constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1918: Willesden West[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Col. Charles Pinkham	10,503	54.1	n/a
	Labour	Samuel Phillip Viant	7,217	37.2	n/a
	Liberal	John Smyth Crone	1,697	8.7	n/a
Majority			3,286	16.9	n/a
Turnout				53.3	n/a
	Unionist win

• endorsed by the Coalition Government.

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: Willesden West[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	George James Furness	13,328	51.5	-2.6
	Labour	Samuel Phillip Viant	12,529	48.5
Majority			799	3.0
Turnout				66.7
	Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1923: Willesden West[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Samuel Phillip Viant	14,004	51.3	+2.8
	Unionist	George James Furness	8,256	30.3	-18.2
	Liberal	David Cleghorn Thomson	5,030	18.4	n/a
Majority			5,748	21.0	24.0
Turnout				69.1	+1.4
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing	+12.0

General Election 1924: Willesden West[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Samuel Phillip Viant	14,884	47.3
	Unionist	Mitford Brice	13,539	43.0
	Liberal	James McCulloch	3,061	9.7
Majority			1,345	4.3
Turnout				77.6
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1929: Willesden West[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Samuel Phillip Viant	20,583	52.3	+5.0
	Unionist	Malcolm Stewart McCorquodale	12,779	32.4	-9.6
	Liberal	Arthur Lewis Leighton	6,038	15.3	+5.6
Majority			7,804	19.9	+15.6
Turnout				73.4	-4.2
	Labour hold		Swing	+7.8

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Willesden West[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Mavis Constance Tate	23,910	60.6	+28.2
	Labour	Samuel Phillip Viant	15,550	39.4
Majority			8,360	21.2
Turnout			39,460	71.7
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1935: Willesden West[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Samuel Phillip Viant	19,402	54.1
	Conservative	S Samuel	16,472	45.9
Majority			2,930	8.2
Turnout			35,874	64.4
	Labour gain from Conservative		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;

• Labour: Samuel Phillip Viant^[9]
• Conservative:

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Willesden West[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Samuel Phillip Viant	26,566	72.2
	Conservative	JB Cartland	10,236	27.8
Majority			16,330	44.4
Turnout				70.5
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1950: Willesden West[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Samuel Phillip Viant	33,963	61.1
	Conservative	Attracta Genevieve Rewcastle	17,848	32.1
	Liberal	Sirdar Karan S.B. Ahluwalia	2,853	5.1
	Communist	D. A. Michaelson	938	1.7
Majority			16,115	29.0
Turnout				83.2
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1951: Willesden West[12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Samuel Phillip Viant	35,296	64.3
	Conservative	John L Bott	19,632	35.7
Majority			15,664	28.6
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1955: Willesden West[13]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Samuel Phillip Viant	29,185	61.8	-2.5
	Conservative	Peter B Kenyon	18,074	38.2	+2.5
Majority			11,111	23.6
Turnout			47,259	74.4
	Labour hold		Swing	-2.5

General Election 1959: Willesden West[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Laurence Anstice Pavitt	25,680	57.2
	Conservative	Mrs. Pamela S Brookes	17,946	39.9
	Communist	Leslie G Burt	1,324	2.9
Majority			7,734	17.3
Turnout			44,950	73.0
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 1964: Willesden West[15]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Laurence Anstice Pavitt	23,862	62.8
	Conservative	John S Grose	12,961	34.2
	Communist	Leslie G Burt	1,130	3.0
Majority			10,901	28.6
Turnout			37,953	63.5
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1966: Willesden West[16]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Laurence Anstice Pavitt	24,944	68.5	+5.7
	Conservative	Miss A Pamela Thomas	10,362	28.4	-5.7
	Communist	Leslie G Burt	1,140	3.1
Majority			14,582	40.1	+11.4
Turnout			36,446	63.6	+0.1
	Labour hold		Swing	+5.7

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1970: Willesden West[17]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Laurence Anstice Pavitt	21,918	67.2
	Conservative	Ronald F Dyason	10,163	31.2
	Communist	Leslie G Burt	515	1.6
Majority			11,755	36.0
Turnout			32,596	59.3
	Labour hold		Swing	+2.0

References

1. Youngs, Frederic A, Jr. (1979). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.I: Southern England. London: Royal Historical Society. pp. 745–748. ISBN 0-901050-67-9.
2. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
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. Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939
10. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
11. British parliamentary election results, 1950-1973 by FWS Craig
12. British parliamentary election results, 1950-1973 by FWS Craig
13. British parliamentary election results, 1950-1973 by FWS Craig
14. F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1950-1973; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow 1973
15. F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1950-1973; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow 1973
16. British parliamentary election results, 1950-1973 by FWS Craig
17. British parliamentary election results, 1950-1973 by FWS Craig

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 4)