Buckrose (UK Parliament constituency)

Yorkshire, East Riding, Buckrose Division
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
County	East Riding of Yorkshire
1885–1950
Replaced by	Bridlington and Beverley
Created from	East Riding of Yorkshire

Buckrose was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, comprising the northern part of the East Riding of Yorkshire, represented by one Member of Parliament, and was created for the 1885 general election.

Buckrose was abolished for the 1950 general election, when boundary changes reduced the East Riding's number of county constituencies from three to two, the eastern part of the constituency and most of the voters being included in the new Bridlington constituency and the remainder in the Beverley constituency.

Boundaries

1885–1918: The Sessional Divisions of Bainton Beacon, Buckrose, and Dickering.

1918–1950: The Borough of Bridlington, the Urban Districts of Filey, Great Driffield, and Norton, and the Rural Districts of Bridlington, Driffield, Norton, and Sherburn.

The constituency consisted of the northern third of the East Riding of Yorkshire. The largest town in the seat was Bridlington, but it also included Filey, Driffield, and Norton, as well as numerous villages, and the rural element was predominant. At the time of the 1921 census, almost two-fifths (38%) of the occupied male population were engaged in agriculture.

Name

Buckrose took its name from the wapentake of Buckrose, one of the medieval sub-divisions of the East Riding which, however, had long ceased to have much administrative significance by 1885, and had covered only part of the area of the constituency and a minority of its population. (The constituency also included the whole of the former wapentake of Dickering, which included Bridlington and Filey, and part of the wapentake of Harthill which included Driffield.) The name seems to have been chosen primarily to avoid offending any local sensibilities, and with little regard for comprehensibility (a criticism also levelled at many of the other new constituency names created under the 1885 Reform Act).

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
1885		Christopher Sykes	Conservative
1886		William Alexander McArthur [1]	Liberal
1886		Christopher Sykes	Conservative
1892		Sir Angus Holden	Liberal
1900		Sir Luke White	Liberal
1918		Algernon Moreing	Coalition Liberal
1922		Guy Gaunt [2]	Conservative
1926 by-election		Sir Albert Braithwaite	Conservative
1945		George Wadsworth	Liberal
1950	constituency abolished: see Bridlington and Beverley

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1885: Buckrose ^{[3] [4]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Christopher Sykes	4,081	51.9
	Liberal	John James Cousins	3,785	48.1
Majority			296	3.8
Turnout			7,866	86.3
Registered electors			9,113
	Conservative win (new seat)

General election 1886: Buckrose ^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Christopher Sykes	3,735	50.1	-1.8
	Liberal	William Alexander McArthur	3,724	49.9	+1.8
Majority			11	0.2	-3.6
Turnout			7,459	81.9	−4.4
Registered electors			9,113
	Conservative hold		Swing	-1.8

• At the General Election of 1886, McArthur was declared the victor over Sykes by a single vote, 3,742 to 3,741, and took his seat, but "on scrutiny" the seat was eventually awarded to his opponent, Sykes, by a majority of 11 votes.

Elections in the 1890s

Fison

General election 1892: Buckrose ^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Angus Holden	4,294	54.1	+4.2
	Conservative	Frederick Fison	3,642	45.9	-4.2
Majority			652	8.2	N/A
Turnout			7,936	87.8	+5.9
Registered electors			9,035
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+4.2

Holden

General election 1895: Buckrose ^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Angus Holden	4,076	50.6	-3.5
	Conservative	Thomas Goff	3,986	49.4	+3.5
Majority			90	1.2	-7.0
Turnout			8,062	86.8	-1.0
Registered electors			9,284
	Liberal hold		Swing	-3.5

Elections in the 1900s

White

General election 1900: Buckrose ^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Luke White	4,083	50.6	+0.0
	Liberal Unionist	Ernest Meysey-Thompson	3,992	49.4	−0.0
Majority			91	1.2	+0.0
Turnout			8,075	83.7	−3.1
Registered electors			9,652
	Liberal hold		Swing	+0.0

General election 1906: Buckrose ^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Luke White	5,236	59.0	+8.4
	Conservative	Reginald Bethune	3,634	41.0	−8.4
Majority			1,602	18.0	+16.8
Turnout			8,870	87.4	+3.7
Registered electors			10,151
	Liberal hold		Swing	+8.4

Elections in the 1910s

Sykes

General election January 1910: Buckrose ^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Luke White	4,957	51.1	-7.9
	Conservative	Mark Sykes	4,739	48.9	+7.9
Majority			218	2.2	-15.8
Turnout			9,696	91.0	+3.6
	Liberal hold		Swing	-7.9

General election December 1910: Buckrose ^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Luke White	4,867	51.2	+0.1
	Conservative	Mark Sykes	4,635	48.8	-0.1
Majority			232	2.4	+0.2
Turnout			9,502	89.2	-1.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	+0.1

General Election 1914–15: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1914 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

• Liberal: Luke White

General election 1918: Buckrose ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	National Liberal	Algernon Moreing	9,310	60.9	New
	Independent Labour	George Henry Dawson	3,176	20.8	New
	Liberal	Austin Taylor	2,792	18.3	-32.9
Majority			6,134	40.1	N/A
Turnout			15,278	56.0	-33.2
	National Liberal gain from Liberal		Swing
Cindicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

Fenby

General election 1922: Buckrose ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Guy Gaunt	12,012	51.3	New
	Liberal	Thomas Fenby	11,411	48.7	+30.4
Majority			601	2.6	N/A
Turnout			23,423	82.5	+26.5
	Unionist gain from National Liberal		Swing

General election 1923: Buckrose ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Guy Gaunt	12,336	50.4	-0.9
	Liberal	Thomas Fenby	12,122	49.6	+0.9
Majority			214	0.8	-1.8
Turnout			24,458	84.1	+1.6
	Unionist hold		Swing	-0.9

General election 1924: Buckrose ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Guy Gaunt	13,966	56.0	+5.6
	Liberal	Harry Briggs	10,962	44.0	-5.6
Majority			3,004	12.0	+11.2
Turnout			24,928	82.9	-1.2
	Unionist hold		Swing	+5.6

1926 Buckrose by-election ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Albert Braithwaite	12,098	48.7	-7.3
	Liberal	Harry Verney	10,537	42.5	-1.5
	Labour	Herbert Cecil Laycock	2,191	8.8	New
Majority			1,552	6.2	-5.8
Turnout			24,826	81.7	-1.2
	Unionist hold		Swing	-2.9

General election 1929: Buckrose ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Albert Braithwaite	15,625	50.0	+1.3
	Liberal	Sidney Streatfield Leigh Lamert	13,825	44.4	+1.9
	Labour	Harold H Vickers	1,766	5.6	-3.2
Majority			1,800	5.6	-0.6
Turnout			31,216	80.4	-1.3
	Unionist hold		Swing	-0.3

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Buckrose ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Albert Braithwaite	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

General election 1935: Buckrose ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Albert Braithwaite	18,090	55.1	N/A
	Liberal	Thomas Macleod	14,763	44.9	New
Majority			3,327	10.2	N/A
Turnout			32,853	78.4	N/A
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

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 from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

• Conservative: Albert Braithwaite
• Liberal: Thomas Macleod

General election 1945: Buckrose ^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	George Wadsworth	15,934	51.5	+6.6
	Conservative	Albert Braithwaite	14,985	48.5	-6.6
Majority			949	3.0	N/A
Turnout			30,919	71.9	-6.5
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+6.6

Notes

1. At the General Election of 1886, McArthur was declared the victor over Sykes by a single vote, 3,742 to 3,741, and took his seat, but "on scrutiny" the seat was eventually awarded to his opponent, Sykes, by a majority of 11 votes
2. Resigned his seat
3. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1886
4. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
5. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig

References

• F W S Craig, "British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-49" (Glasgow: Parliamentary Research Services, 1969)
• Michael Kinnear, "The British Voter" (London: Batsford, 1968)
• Frederic A Youngs, jr, "Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol II" (London: Royal Historical Society, 1991)
• "The Constitutional Yearbook, 1913" (London: National Unionist Association, 1913)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 6)