Richmond (Surrey) (UK Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with the Richmond constituency in Yorkshire.

Richmond
Former borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	1918-1965 Surrey 1965-1983 Greater London
Major settlements	Richmond
1918–1983
Seats	One
Created from	Kingston
Replaced by	Richmond and Barnes

Richmond was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Richmond, which is in the north-western part of the historic county of Surrey and (since 1965) in Greater London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

History

The constituency was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918 for the 1918 general election. It had formerly been the northern part of the Kingston division.

The seat was abolished for the 1983 general election, when it was replaced by the new Richmond & Barnes constituency.

Boundaries

In 1918 the seat was created as a borough constituency of Surrey. It was in the north-west corner of the historic county and adjoined the south bank of the River Thames. It comprised the Municipal Borough of Richmond, as well as the Urban Districts of Barnes and Ham.

In 1932 the Barnes Urban District was upgraded to a Municipal Borough. In the following year most of Ham was incorporated in the Municipal Borough of Richmond. These administrative changes did not lead to any immediate change in the constituency boundaries.

In the redistribution of parliamentary seats, which took effect in 1950, this constituency was not significantly changed. It was defined in the Representation of the People Act 1948 as comprising the Municipal Boroughs of Barnes and Richmond. There were some minor boundary changes to the two Municipal Boroughs, which affected the parliamentary seat from 1964 (see S.I. 1960/465).

In 1965 the area of the constituency became the southern part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in Greater London.

When the next redistribution of parliamentary seats took effect in 1974, the constituency was again broadly unchanged. It was defined as comprising the following wards of the London Borough – Barnes, East Sheen, Ham, Petersham, Kew, Mortlake, Palewell, Richmond Hill and Richmond Town.

Members of Parliament

Event		Member	Party
style="background-color: Template:Coalition Conservative/meta/color" |	1918	Clifford Blackburn Edgar	Coalition Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Independent Conservative/meta/color" |	1922	Harry Thomas Alfred Becker	Independent Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1923		Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1924	Sir Newton James Moore	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1932 by-election	Sir William Ray	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1937 by-election	Sir George Harvie-Watt	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1959	Sir Anthony Royle	Conservative
	1983	constituency abolished: see Richmond & Barnes

Elections

Elections in the 1920s

Margery Corbett Ashby

General Election 1922: Richmond (Surrey) Electorate 34,719

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ind. Unionist	Harry Thomas Alfred Becker	12,075	50.6
	Unionist	Clifford Blackburn Edgar	6,032	25.3
	Liberal	Margery Irene Corbett Ashby	5,765	24.1
Majority			6,043	25.3
Turnout				68.8

General Election 1923: Richmond (Surrey) Electorate 35,042

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Harry Thomas Alfred Becker	13,112	63.0	+12.4
	Liberal	Margery Irene Corbett Ashby	7,702	37.0	+12.9
Majority				26.0	+.07
Turnout				59.4	−9.4

General Election 1924: Richmond (Surrey)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative
	Labour
Majority
Turnout

General Election 1929: Richmond (Surrey)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative
	Labour
Majority
Turnout

Elections in the 1930s

Richmond (Surrey) by-election, 1932 Electorate

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir William Ray	unopposed
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1931: Richmond (Surrey)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Moore	35,333	84.54
	Labour	JL Thomson	6,460	15.46
Majority			28,873	69.09
Turnout				71.97

General Election 1935: Richmond (Surrey)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir William Ray	30,433	73.53
	Labour	L Gassman	10,953	26.47
Majority			19,480	47.07
Turnout				69.77

By Election 1937: Richmond (Surrey)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative
	Labour
Majority
Turnout

General Election 1945: Richmond (Surrey)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative
	Labour
Majority
Turnout

See also

• List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London

Sources

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (The Macmillan Press 1977)