Finsbury (UK Parliament constituency) facts for kids

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The parliamentary borough of Finsbury was a constituency of the House of Commons of the UK Parliament from 1832 to 1885, and from 1918 to 1950. The constituency was first created in 1832 as one of seven two-seat "metropolis" parliamentary boroughs (five in southeast Middlesex and two in northeast Surrey) other than the two which already existed: Westminster and the City of London; the latter until 1885 retained an exceptional four seats. Finsbury was directly north of the City of London and was smaller than the Finsbury division of the Ossulstone hundred but took in land of Holborn division (hundred division) to its southwest in pre-introduction changes by Boundary Commissioners. It included Finsbury, Holborn, Moorfields, Clerkenwell, Islington, Stoke Newington and historic St Pancras (later mainly known as Camden Town). The 1918 constituency corresponded to the smaller Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury (Finsbury, Moorfields, Clerkenwell, and St Luke's, Islington); it was a seat, thus electing a single member, fulfilling a longstanding aim of Chartism which underscored the 1832 reforms.

History
- 1832–1885 two-member constituency / parliamentary borough
- 1918–1950 seat
Members of Parliament
- MPs 1832–1885
- MPs 1918–1950
Elections

History

1832–1885 two-member constituency / parliamentary borough

The original constituency was created by the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832, which carried into effect the redistribution of parliamentary seats under the Reform Act 1832.

Finsbury in the Metropolitan area, 1868–85

Finsbury in the Parliamentary County of London, 1918–50

It was originally proposed that the constituency would comprise the entire Finsbury Division and a number of adjoining parishes in the Holborn Division of Ossulstone, one of the hundreds of Middlesex. The commissioners appointed under the Boundaries Act decided to exclude the northern part of the Finsbury Division, which extended as far as Friern Barnet, some nine miles from London and a largely rural area. They could find no natural boundary to separate "the Rural from the Town District" and suggested that the dividing line should run through the northern section of Islington, following limits of relatively recently founded Church of England parishes. The seat as eventually created included the whole of Islington, however.

The parliamentary borough was defined in Schedule O of the Boundaries Act as:

The several Parishes of Saint Luke, Saint George the Martyr, St Giles in the Fields, Saint George Bloomsbury, Saint Mary Stoke Newington, and St. Mary, Islington; the several Liberties or Places of Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, Ely Rents, Ely Place, the Rolls, Glass House Yard, and the Charterhouse; Lincoln's Inn and Gray's Inn; the Parish of St. James and St. John Clerkenwell, except that Part thereof which is situate to the North of the Parish of Islington; those Parts of the respective Parishes of Saint Sepulchre and Saint Andrew Holborn and of Furnivals Inn and Staple Inn respectively, which are situated without the Liberty of the City of London.

The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 divided the constituency, by then highly populated, into seven new single member constituencies. Four were divisions of a new Parliamentary Borough of Islington; while the Finsbury Parliamentary Borough was divided into three, named Central Division, East Division and Holborn Division.

1918–1950 seat

The Representation of the People Act 1918 created a new single-member Finsbury Parliamentary borough in the County of London, identical to the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. In 1950, it was merged with the neighbouring borough of Shoreditch to become Shoreditch and Finsbury.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1832–1885

The parliamentary borough returned two members of parliament

Election	1st Member		1st Party		2nd Party
1832		Robert Grant	Whig	Robert Spankie	Whig
1834 by-election		Thomas Slingsby Duncombe	Radical	Robert Spankie	Whig
1835				Thomas Wakley	Radical
1852				Thomas Challis	Radical
1857				William Cox	Whig
1859			Liberal	Morton Peto	Liberal
1861 by-election		William Cox	Liberal	Morton Peto	Liberal
1865		William McCullagh Torrens	Liberal	Sir Andrew Lusk	Liberal
1885	constituency abolished: see Finsbury Central, Finsbury East and Holborn

MPs 1918–1950

The borough was a single-member constituency.

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Martin Archer-Shee	Unionist
	1923	George Gillett	Labour
	1931	George Gillett	National Labour
	1935	George Woods	Labour
	1945	John Platts-Mills	Labour
	1948	John Platts-Mills	Labour Independent Group
1950		constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

H.E.A. Cotton

General election 1918: Finsbury
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Unionist	Martin Archer-Shee	8,782	63.8	N/A
	Liberal	Evan Cotton	4,981	36.2	N/A
Majority			3,801	27.6	N/A
Turnout			13,763	39.5	N/A
	Unionist win
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Finsbury
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Martin Archer-Shee	9,382	44.6	-19.2
	Liberal	Harry Gilpin	6,384	30.4	-5.8
	Labour	George Gillett	4,903	23.3	New
	Independent Labour	Christopher Roland Morden	349	1.7	New
Majority			2,998	14.2	-13.4
Turnout			21,018	54.3	+14.8
	Unionist hold		Swing	-6.7

A.H. Scott

General election 1923: Finsbury
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Gillett	8,907	42.4	+19.1
	Unionist	Martin Archer-Shee	7,063	33.6	-11.0
	Liberal	Alfred Scott	5,054	24.0	-6.4
Majority			1,844	8.8	N/A
Turnout			21,024	53.8	-0.5
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing	+15.0

General election 1924: Finsbury
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Gillett	12,363	47.0	+4.6
	Unionist	Ernest Taylor	11,643	44.2	+10.6
	Liberal	Robert Shaw	2,324	8.8	-15.2
Majority			720	2.8	-6.0
Turnout			26,330	66.3	+12.5
	Labour hold		Swing	-3.0

General election 1929: Finsbury
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Gillett	17,970	56.5	+9.5
	Unionist	William Ray	9,026	28.3	-15.9
	Liberal	William John Pinard	4,855	15.2	+6.4
Majority			8,944	28.2	+25.4
Turnout			31,851	66.0	-0.3
	Labour hold		Swing	+12.7

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Finsbury
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Labour	George Gillett	17,292	63.1	*New*
	Labour	Thomas Williams	10,133	36.9	-19.6
Majority			7,159	26.2	N/A
Turnout			27,425	58.1	-7.9
	National Labour Organisation gain from Labour		Swing	N/A

General election 1935: Finsbury
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Woods	13,408	55.8	+18.9
	National Labour	George Gillett	10,600	44.2	-18.9
Majority			2,808	11.6	N/A
Turnout			24,008	56.2	-1.9
	Labour Co-operative gain from National Labour Organisation		Swing	+18.9

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 and by the Autumn of 1939, the following candidates had been selected;

Labour: George Woods
National Labour: Frederick Burden

Elections in the 1940s

General election 1945: Finsbury
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Platts-Mills	9,786	70.8	+15.0
	Conservative	Frederick Burden	4,029	29.2	New
Majority			5,757	41.6	+30.0
Turnout			13,815	63.9	+7.7
	Labour hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1880: Finsbury (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Andrew Lusk	16,128	36.5	+4.9
	Liberal	William McCullagh Torrens	15,247	34.5	+1.7
	Conservative	Francis Duncan	12,800	29.0	+3.8
Majority			2,447	5.5	−0.9
Turnout			28,928 (est)	64.3 (est)	+13.0
Registered electors			44,955
	Liberal hold		Swing	+1.5
	Liberal hold		Swing	−0.1

Elections in the 1870s

General election 1874: Finsbury (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William McCullagh Torrens	10,099	32.8	−7.0
	Liberal	Andrew Lusk	9,713	31.6	−6.2
	Conservative	Charles Wilson Randolph	7,737	25.2	+6.6
	Lib-Lab	Benjamin Lucraft	3,205	10.4	New
Majority			1,976	6.4	−12.9
Turnout			18,880 (est)	51.3 (est)	−7.0
Registered electors			36,804
	Liberal hold		Swing	−5.2
	Liberal hold		Swing	−4.8

Elections in the 1860s

General election 1868: Finsbury (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William McCullagh Torrens	13,159	39.8	+2.5
	Liberal	Andrew Lusk	12,503	37.8	+2.8
	Conservative	Peter Frederick O'Malley	6,137	18.6	+14.8
	Liberal	William Cox	1,238	3.7	−18.7
Majority			6,366	19.3	+6.7
Turnout			19,587 (est)	58.3 (est)	+12.0
Registered electors			33,601
	Liberal hold		Swing	−6.2
	Liberal hold		Swing	+10.8

General election 1865: Finsbury (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William McCullagh Torrens	8,480	37.3	*N/A*
	Liberal	Andrew Lusk	7,959	35.0	*N/A*
	Liberal	William Cox	5,100	22.4	+1.0
	Conservative	William Phillips	866	3.8	New
	Independent Liberal	Philip William Perfitt	316	1.4	New
Majority			2,859	12.6	−4.4
Turnout			11,794 (est)	46.3 (est)	−2.1
Registered electors			25,461
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

By-election, 17 December 1861: Finsbury (1 seat)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Cox	4,884	50.2	+28.8
	Liberal	John Remington Mills	4,848	49.8	N/A
Majority			36	0.4	−16.6
Turnout			9,732	43.1	−5.3
Registered electors			22,556
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

Caused by Duncombe's death.

Elections in the 1850s

General election 1859: Finsbury (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Slingsby Duncombe	8,538	40.1	+0.2
	Liberal	Morton Peto	8,174	38.4	*N/A*
	Liberal	William Cox	4,556	21.4	−2.3
Majority			3,618	17.0	+0.8
Turnout			10,634 (est)	48.4 (est)	+6.3
Registered electors			21,951
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

General election 1857: Finsbury (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Radical	Thomas Slingsby Duncombe	6,922	39.9	−1.3
	Whig	William Cox	4,110	23.7	*New*
	Radical	John Humffreys Parry	3,954	22.8	N/A
	Whig	Joseph Haythorne Reed	2,378	13.7	New
Turnout			8,682 (est)	42.1 (est)	+1.7
Registered electors			20,626
Majority			2,812	16.2	−12.6
	Radicals hold		Swing	N/A
Majority			156	0.9	N/A
	Whig gain from Radicals		Swing	N/A

General election 1852: Finsbury (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Radical	Thomas Challis	7,504	46.3	*N/A*
	Radical	Thomas Slingsby Duncombe	6,678	41.2	*N/A*
	Radical	James Wyld	2,010	12.4	N/A
Majority			4,668	28.8	N/A
Turnout			8,096 (est)	40.4 (est)	N/A
Registered electors			20,025
	Radicals hold		Swing	N/A
	Radicals hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1840s

General election 1847: Finsbury (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Radicals	Thomas Wakley	Unopposed
	Radicals	Thomas Slingsby Duncombe	Unopposed
Registered electors			15,921
	Radicals hold
	Radicals hold

General election 1841: Finsbury (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Radicals	Thomas Wakley	Unopposed
	Radicals	Thomas Slingsby Duncombe	Unopposed
Registered electors			12,974
	Radicals hold
	Radicals hold

Elections in the 1830s

General election 1837: Finsbury (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Radical	Thomas Wakley	4,957	40.2	+12.2
	Radical	Thomas Slingsby Duncombe	4,895	39.7	+2.2
	Conservative	Dudley Montague Perceval	2,470	20.0	+0.6
Majority			2,425	19.7	+11.1
Turnout			7,489	61.1	+2.8
Registered electors			12,264
	Radicals hold		Swing	+6.0
	Radicals hold		Swing	+1.0

General election 1835: Finsbury (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Radical	Thomas Slingsby Duncombe	4,497	37.5	*N/A*
	Radical	Thomas Wakley	3,359	28.0	+10.6
	Conservative	Robert Spankie	2,332	19.4	−3.6
	Whig	Henry William Hobhouse	1,817	15.1	N/A
Majority			1,027	8.6	N/A
Turnout			6,003 (est)	58.3 (est)	−12.9
Registered electors			10,299
	Radicals gain from Whig		Swing	N/A
	Radicals gain from Whig		Swing	N/A

By-election, 2 July 1834: Finsbury (1 seat)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Radical	Thomas Slingsby Duncombe	2,514	45.7	*N/A*
	Tory	Henry Pownall	1,915	34.8	New
	Radical	Thomas Wakley	695	12.6	−4.8
	Whig	Charles Babbage	379	6.9	−11.8
Majority			599	10.9	N/A
Turnout			5,503	59.2	−12.0
Registered electors			9,294
	Radicals gain from Whig		Swing	N/A

Caused by Grant's appointment as Governor of Bombay

General election 1832: Finsbury (2 seats)
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Whig	Robert Grant	4,278	34.6
	Whig	Robert Spankie	2,842	23.0
	Whig	Charles Babbage	2,311	18.7
	Radical	Thomas Wakley	2,151	17.4
	Radical	Christopher Temple	787	6.4
Majority			531	4.3
Turnout			7,344	71.2
Registered electors			10,309
	Whig win (new seat)
	Whig win (new seat)

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