Croydon (UK Parliament constituency)

Croydon
Former borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	Surrey
1885–1918
Seats	One
Created from	East Surrey
Replaced by	Croydon North and Croydon South

Croydon was a constituency in 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 system of election.

Boundaries

This constituency was a parliamentary borough covering an area based on the town of Croydon. Croydon had been a Municipal Borough from 1883 and was to become a County Borough in 1889. By 1902, at the latest, the parliamentary and local government boroughs had the same boundaries.

The Royal Commission on London Traffic, which reported in 1906, included the borough in its definition of Greater London. It is part of the northern section of the historic county of Surrey, which was included in Greater London after 1965.

From 1918 Croydon was divided into two borough constituencies - Croydon North and Croydon South.

History

The constituency was close enough to London to be considered part of a Greater London area. Nevertheless at the time it existed the constituency was a Surrey borough, so it was in the South East region rather than the London region. Both regional historic constituency categories apply.

A large part of the inhabitants of this constituency commuted to work in the City of London. It was however an area where attendance at Nonconformist chapels exceeded that at Anglican churches, according to the Daily News survey of 1902. By the time of the 1911 census a larger artisan population had moved in so the social status of the borough was declining.

The constituency was in general Conservative, but less strongly so than many suburban commuter seats around London. The Labour Party secured 20% of the vote, in a three way contest, in the 1906 election.

Members of Parliament

W. Grantham

Year		Member	Party
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1885	William Grantham	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1886	Sidney Herbert	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1895	Charles Ritchie	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Unionist Party/meta/color" |	1906	H. O. Arnold-Forster	Liberal Unionist
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1909	Sir Robert Hermon-Hodge	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1910	Ian Malcolm	Conservative
1918		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1880s

Jabez Balfour

General Election 1885: Croydon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Grantham	5,484	56.0	n/a
	Liberal	Jabez Spencer Balfour	4,315	44.0	n/a
Majority			1,169	12.0	n/a
Turnout				77.7	n/a
	Conservative win (new seat)

Sydney Buxton

Croydon by-election, 1886

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Hon. Sidney Herbert	5,205	53.9	−2.1
	Liberal	Sydney Charles Buxton	4,458	46.1	+2.1
Majority			747	7.8	−4.2
Turnout				76.6	−1.1
	Conservative hold		Swing	-2.1

General Election 1886: Croydon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Hon. Sidney Herbert	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

Elections in the 1890s

Sidney Herbert

General Election 1892: Croydon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Hon. Sidney Herbert	6,528	57.5	n/a
	Liberal	Edward William Grimwade	4,834	42.5	n/a
Majority			1,694	15.0	n/a
Turnout				76.6	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

Croydon by-election, 1895

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rt Hon. Charles Thomson Ritchie	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

Charles Ritchie

General Election 1895: Croydon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rt Hon. Charles Thomson Ritchie	6,876	59.7	n/a
	Liberal	Christopher Clarke Hutchinson	4,647	40.3	n/a
Majority			2,229	19.4	n/a
Turnout				71.3	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1900: Croydon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rt Hon. Charles Thomson Ritchie	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

H. Arnold-Forster

Sidney Stranks

General Election 1906: Croydon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Unionist	Rt Hon. Hugh Oakeley Arnold-Forster	8,211	41.5	n/a
	Liberal	Henry Charles Somers Augustus Somerset	7,573	38.3	n/a
	Labour Repr. Cmte.	Sidney Stranks	4,007	20.2	n/a
Majority			638	3.2	n/a
Turnout				83.0	n/a
	Liberal Unionist hold		Swing	n/a

Frank Smith

Croydon by-election, 1909

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Robert Trotter Hermon-Hodge	11,989	57.4
	Liberal	John Edward Raphael	8,041	38.4
	Labour	Francis Samuel Smith	886	4.2
Majority			3,948	19.0
Turnout				79.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1910s

Hermon-Hodge

General Election January 1910: Croydon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Robert Trotter Hermon-Hodge	12,223	51.9
	Liberal	Arthur Lewis Leon	11,327	48.1
Majority			896	3.8
Turnout				86.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

Ian Malcolm

General Election December 1910: Croydon

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ian Zachary Malcolm	11,875	53.4
	Liberal	Arthur Lewis Leon	10,343	46.6
Majority			1,532	6.8
Turnout				81.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

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 the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;

• Unionist: Ian Zachary Malcolm
• Liberal:

See also

• List of former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies

References

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1974)
• Social Geography of British Elections 1885-1910. by Henry Pelling (Macmillan 1967)
• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume II 1886-1918, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1978)
• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume III 1919-1945, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1979)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 6)