East Perthshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Eastern Perthshire
Former county constituency for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of Scotland	Perthshire
1885–1918
Seats	One
Created from	Perthshire
Replaced by	Perth

East (or Eastern) Perthshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 to 1918. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system.

Boundaries

The constituency was defined by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, by dividing the Perthshire constituency to form two new constituencies which were first used in the 1885 general election. The other new constituency was West Perthshire. Together with the burgh constituency of Perth, which was unaltered, these constituencies covered the county of Perth, except that five detached parishes had been merged into the Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire constituency by the Representation of the People (Scotland) Act 1832. ^[1]

As defined in the 1885 Act, the constituency consisted of the "Parishes of Aberdalgie, Alyth, Abernyte, Auchtergaven, Arngask, Abernethy, Blairgowrie, Bendochy, Coupar Angus, Cargill, Caputh (except the detached portions locally situated in Forfarshire), Collace, Clunie, Dunbarney, Dunning, the detached portion of the parish of Dunkeld and Dowally which contains the town of Dunkeld, Dron, Errol, Fowlis-Easter, Forteviot, Forgandenny, Findogask, Inchture, so much of the parish of Kettins as is locally situate in Perthshire, Kinloch, Kinfauns, Kinclaven, Kinnaird, Kinnoull, Kilspindie, Lethendy, Longforgan (including so much of the parish of ‘Liff, Benvie, and Invergowrie’ as is situate in Perthshire), Meigle, Methven, Moneydie, Perth, Redgorton, Tibbermore, Rattray, Rhynd, Scone, St. Martins, and St Madoes." ^[2]

1885 boundaries were used also in the general elections of 1886, 1892, 1895, 1900, 1906, January 1910 and December 1910.

By 1918, throughout most of Scotland, county boundaries had been altered, and detached parishes were generally historic. The Representation of the People Act 1918 took account of new local government boundaries and grouped the county of Perth with the county of Kinross for parliamentary representation purposes. Therefore, for the 1918 general election, the two counties were covered by the Perth constituency, which was now a county constituency, entirely within the county of Perth, and the Kinross and West Perthshire constituency, which covered the county of Kinross and part of the county of Perth. ^[1]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member [3]	Party
	1885	Robert Stewart Menzies	Liberal
	1889 b-e	Sir John Kinloch	Liberal
	1903 b-e	Thomas Buchanan	Liberal
	Jan. 1910	William Young	Liberal
1918		constituency abolished

Elections

Decades:

1880s 1890s 1900s 1910s

Elections in the 1880s

1885 general election: East Perthshire ^{[4] [5]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Robert Stewart Menzies	4,222	63.6
	Conservative	Andrew Murray	2,421	36.4
Majority			1,801	27.2
Turnout			6,643	84.6
Registered electors			7,851
	Liberal win (new seat)

1886 general election: East Perthshire ^{[4] [5]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Robert Stewart Menzies	3,504	61.5	−2.1
	Liberal Unionist	John Robert Holland	2,195	38.5	+2.1
Majority			1,309	23.0	−4.2
Turnout			5,699	72.6	−12.0
Registered electors			7,851
	Liberal hold		Swing	-2.1

Menzies' death caused a by-election.

Kinloch

1889 East Perthshire by-election ^{[6] [5]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Kinloch	4,005	63.6	+2.1
	Conservative	William Lindsay Boase	2,289	36.4	−2.1
Majority			1,716	27.2	+4.2
Turnout			6,294	80.8	+8.2
Registered electors			7,790
	Liberal hold		Swing	+2.1

Elections in the 1890s

1892 general election: East Perthshire ^{[6] [5]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Kinloch	3,533	58.7	−2.8
	Conservative	William Lindsay Boase	2,484	41.3	+2.8
Majority			1,049	17.4	−5.6
Turnout			6,017	79.3	+6.7
Registered electors			7,585
	Liberal hold		Swing	−2.8

1895 general election: East Perthshire ^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Kinloch	3,410	57.4	−1.3
	Conservative	William Lindsay Boase	2,535	42.6	+1.3
Majority			875	14.8	−2.6
Turnout			5,945	77.8	−1.5
Registered electors			7,641
	Liberal hold		Swing	-1.3

Elections in the 1900s

1900 general election: East Perthshire ^{[7] [5]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Kinloch	3,185	59.8	+2.4
	Conservative	John Graham Stewart	2,143	40.2	−2.4
Majority			1,042	19.6	+4.8
Turnout			5,328	71.4	−6.4
Registered electors			7,463
	Liberal hold		Swing	+2.4

Buchanan

1903 East Perthshire by-election ^{[8] [5]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Buchanan	Unopposed
	Liberal hold

1906 general election: East Perthshire ^{[9] [5]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Buchanan	3,738	58.5	−1.3
	Conservative	John Stewart-Murray	2,648	41.5	+1.3
Majority			1,090	17.0	−2.6
Turnout			6,386	81.6	+10.2
Registered electors			7,825
	Liberal hold		Swing	−1.3

Elections in the 1910s

Young

January 1910 general election: East Perthshire ^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Young	3,884	59.0	+0.5
	Conservative	Alexander David Murray	2,703	41.0	−0.5
Majority			1,181	18.0	+1.0
Turnout			6,587	83.4	+1.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	+0.5

December 1910 general election: East Perthshire ^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Young	3,658	56.4	−2.6
	Conservative	Noel Skelton	2,826	43.6	+2.6
Majority			832	12.8	−5.2
Turnout			6,484	80.2	−3.2
	Liberal hold		Swing	-2.6

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 and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;

• Liberal:William Young
• Unionist: Noel Skelton ^[11]

Notes and references

1. Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972 ( ISBN   0-900178-09-4), F. W. S. Craig 1972
2. Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, Seventh Schedule
3. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 1)
4. Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench, 1889
5. Craig, FWS, ed. (1974). British Parliamentary Election Results: 1885-1918. London: Macmillan Press. ISBN   9781349022984.
6. Whitaker's Almanack, 1893
7. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1901
8. The Times, 27 February 1903 p8
9. Whitaker's Almanack, 1907
10. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1916
11. Perthshire Advertiser 17 Jun 1914