1938 Combined Scottish Universities by-election

Last updated

1938 Combined Scottish Universities by-election
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
  1936 21–25 February 1938 1945  

Constituency of Combined Scottish Universities
Turnout52.1% (Decrease2.svg2.7%)
 First partySecond party
  Frances H. Melville, c. 1904 (3x4 crop).png
Candidate John Anderson Frances Melville
Party National Independent
Popular vote14,0425,618
Percentage48.8%19.5%
SwingDecrease2.svg7.7%New

 Third partyFourth party
 
SNP
Peter Chalmers Mitchell 1920 (3x4 crop).jpg
Candidate Andrew Dewar Gibb Peter Chalmers Mitchell
Party SNP Independent Progressive
Popular vote5,2463,868
Percentage18.2%13.5%
SwingDecrease2.svg12.9%New

MP before election

Ramsay MacDonald
National Labour

Elected MP

John Anderson
National

The 1938 Combined Scottish Universities by-election was a by-election held from 21 to 25 February 1938 for the Combined Scottish Universities, a university constituency of the British House of Commons.

Contents

Vacancy

The seat had become vacant when the National Labour Member of Parliament (MP) (and former Prime Minister), Ramsay MacDonald had died on 9 November 1937, aged 71. He had held the seat since the by-election in 1936, having held several other seats since he was first elected to Parliament at the 1906 general election.

Candidates

The parties in the National Government did not usually stand candidates against each other, and since in this case the seat was held by National Labour, there was no Unionist or National Liberal candidate.

The National Government supported a "National" candidate Sir John Anderson, a former civil servant who had been Governor of Bengal from 1932 to 1937.

The Scottish National Party candidate was Andrew Dewar Gibb, the Regius Professor of Law at Glasgow University who had also contested the by-election in 1936. Two other candidates stood as independents.

Result

The result was a victory for Anderson (the National candidate), won nearly 50% of the votes, the remainder being quite evenly between the other candidates. [1] He held the seat until the university constituencies were abolished for the 1950 general election.

Votes

Combined Scottish Universities by-election, 21-25 February 1938
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
National John Anderson 14,042 48.8 −7.7
Independent Frances Melville 5,61819.5New
SNP Andrew Dewar Gibb 5,24618.2−12.9
Independent Progressive Peter Chalmers Mitchell 3,86813.5New
Majority 8,42429.3−8.1
Turnout 29,13452.1−2.7
National hold Swing

See also

References

  1. "Universities By-election. Sir J. Anderson's Success". The Glasgow Herald . 1 March 1938. p. 3. Retrieved 19 March 2017.

Sources