Balham and Tooting (UK Parliament constituency)

Balham and Tooting was a constituency in South London, which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 1918 general election and abolished for the 1950 general election.

Balham & Tooting in the County of London
A map showing the wards of Wandsworth Metropolitan Borough as they appeared in 1916.

Balham and Tooting
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Seatsone
Created fromWandsworth
Replaced byClapham and Wandsworth Central

Boundaries

The constituency, officially the Balham and Tooting Division of the Parliamentary Borough of Wandsworth, was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918. The 1918 Act had the principal aim of reducing the growing malapportionment due to electorate growth in geographical areas coupled with the subsidiary aim of realigning constituency boundaries so as to largely correspond with units of local government units (as created in 1889 and 1900). The new seat was one of five divisions of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth in the parliamentary County of London.[1]

The seat had previously formed part of the single-member Wandsworth constituency, created in 1885.[2]

The constituency was defined in terms of wards of the metropolitan borough as they existed in 1918: it comprised the entire Tooting ward and the part of the Balham ward which lay to the west and south of the centre of Balham Hill, Balham High Road, Ormeley Road, Cavendish Road and Emmanuel Road. The remainder of the Balham ward was in another of the Wandsworth divisions, Clapham.[3]

The constituency was surrounded by Wandsworth Central to the north-west, Battersea South to the north, Clapham to the north-east, Streatham to the east and south-east, Mitcham to the south and Wimbledon to the west.

In the redistribution which took effect with the 1950 United Kingdom general election the Tooting ward and part of Balham ward were included in the redrawn Wandsworth Central seat. The rest of Balham ward remained in the Clapham constituency.

Members of Parliament
ElectionMemberParty
1918 John Denison-Pender Unionist
1922 Alfred Butt Unionist
1936 b-e George Doland Conservative
1945 Richard Adams Labour
1950 constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1910s
General election 1918: Balham and Tooting [4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
C Unionist John Denison-Pender 12,405 59.7
Labour Frank Smith 3,586 17.2
Independent Democrat Alfred James Hurley 1,805 8.7
Liberal Maxwell Anderson 1,542 7.4
Ind. Conservative William Hunt 1,457 7.0
Majority 8,819 42.5
Turnout 20,795 51.7
Unionist win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s
General election 1922: Balham and Tooting [5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Alfred Butt 17,239 68.2 +8.5
Liberal Joseph William Molden 8,044 31.8 +24.4
Majority 9,195 36.4 −6.1
Turnout 25,283 61.1 +9.4
Unionist hold Swing −8.0
General election 1923: Balham and Tooting [6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Alfred Butt 12,695 49.4 −18.8
Liberal George Little 7,477 29.1 −2.7
Labour Edward Archbold 5,536 21.5 New
Majority 5,218 20.3 −16.1
Turnout 25,708 61.1 0.0
Unionist hold Swing −8.0
General election 1924: Balham and Tooting[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Alfred Butt 20,378 67.8 +18.4
Labour Edward Archbold 9,672 32.2 +10.7
Majority 10,706 35.6 +15.3
Turnout 30,050 70.3 +9.2
Unionist hold Swing
General election 1929: Balham and Tooting [8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Alfred Butt 18,181 45.2 −22.6
Labour Charles Wortham Brook 13,499 33.6 +1.4
Liberal William Hadley Summerskill 8,533 21.2 New
Majority 4,682 11.6 −24.0
Turnout 40,213 70.6 +0.3
Unionist hold Swing −12.0

Elections in the 1930s
General election 1931: Balham and Tooting[9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Alfred Butt 28,592 74.5 +29.3
Labour Percy F. Pollard 9,780 25.5 -8.1
Majority 18,812 49.0 +37.4
Turnout 38,372 67.1 -3.5
Conservative hold Swing
General election 1935: Balham and Tooting[10]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Alfred Butt 22,013 62.9 -11.6
Labour William Davies Lloyd 12,960 37.1 +11.6
Majority 9,053 25.9 -23.1
Turnout 34,973 61.8 -5.3
Conservative hold Swing
1936 Balham and Tooting by-election[11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative George Doland 14,959 53.7 -9.2
Labour W J Miller 12,889 46.3 +9.2
Majority 2,070 7.4 -18.5
Turnout 27,848 49.2 -12.6
Conservative hold Swing

Elections in the 1940s
General election 1945: Balham and Tooting[12][13]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Richard Adams 19,782 57.6 +20.5
Conservative Walter Stanley Edgson 14,552 42.4 -20.5
Majority 5,230 15.2 N/A
Turnout 34,334 70.9 +14.1
Labour gain from Conservative Swing

References
  1. Youngs, Frederic A, Jr. (1979). Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol.I: Southern England. London: Royal Historical Society. p. 744. ISBN 0-901050-67-9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. Schedule 4: New Boroughs, Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 (c.23)
  3. Schedule 9: Redistribution of Seats, Representation of the People Act 1918 (c.64)
  4. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  5. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  6. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  7. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  8. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  9. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  10. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  11. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  12. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  13. Peter Scott (2004). "Edgson, (Walter) Stanley (1893–1950)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/51906. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
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