Aberdare (UK Parliament constituency)

Aberdare
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1983
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Cynon Valley
Created from	Merthyr Tydfil

Aberdare was a constituency in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 1918 general election and returned one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system until it was abolished for the 1983 general election. The Labour Party captured the seat in 1922 and held it comfortably until its abolition

Boundaries and name

The constituency consisted of the two neighbouring towns of Aberdare and Mountain Ash in Glamorgan, Wales. When the seat was abolished in 1983, it was largely replaced by the Cynon Valley seat.

1918 – 1950

Under the Representation of the People Act 1918, the existing parliamentary borough of Merthyr Tydfil was divided into two single-member constituencies. One of these was Merthyr Tydfil, Aberdare Division, which consisted of the two urban districts of Aberdare and Mountain Ash.

1950 – 1983

The Representation of the People Act 1948 reorganised constituencies throughout Great Britain, and introduced the term "borough constituency" in place of "parliamentary borough". The duly renamed Aberdare Borough Constituency was again defined as consisting of the Aberdare and Mountain Ash urban districts. The renamed constituency was first contested at the 1950 general election. It was unchanged at the next revision of constituencies in 1970, continuing with the same name and boundaries until its abolition in 1983.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Charles Stanton	Coalition National Democratic
	1922	George Hall	Labour
	1946 by-election	David Thomas	Labour
	1954 by-election	Arthur Probert	Labour
	Feb 1974	Ioan Evans	Labour Co-operative
	1983	constituency abolished: see Cynon Valley

History

The first member for Aberdare was Charles Stanton, Stanton was a militant miners' agent in the pre-1914 era but had become an equally fierce proponent of the war effort which brought him into conflict with former colleagues including Keir Hardie. Stanton was elected to succeed Hardie as member for Merthyr Boroughs at a by-election in 1915 and comfortably won the Aberdare constituency at the 1918 Coupon Election.

By 1922, Stanton's appeal and popularity had faded and he was defeated by George Hall , who held the seat for over twenty years.

Labour's hold on Aberdare was never threatened thereafter although Plaid Cymru did make a strong showing at the 1970 General Election. Glyn Owen, the new Plaid Cymru candidate in 1974, sustained the campaign from 1970 but this dis not seriously threaten the new Labour candidate, Ioan Evans, at the second election that year.

Election Results 1918-1945

General Election, December 1918: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Democratic	Charles Butt Stanton	22,824
	Labour	Rev. Thomas Evan Nicholas	6,229
Majority
Turnout
	National Democratic hold		Swing

• endorsed by the Coalition Government

General Election 1923: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Henry Hall	22,379	58.2	+1.0
	Liberal	William M. Llewellyn	16,050	41.8	-1.0
Majority			6,329	16.4	+2.0
Turnout				83.3	+3.4
	Labour hold		Swing	+1.0

General Election 1929: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Henry Hall	29,550	64.6
	Liberal	Evan Joshua Roderick	10,594	23.2
	Unionist	Arthur Hugh Elsdale Molson	5,573	12.2
Majority			18,956	41.4
Turnout				84.5
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1931: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Henry Hall	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Labour hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1935: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Henry Hall	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Labour hold		Swing	n/a

Election Results 1945-1979

General Election, 5 July 1945: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Henry Hall	34,398	84.25
	Conservative	CG Clover	6,429	15.75
Majority			27,969	68.51
Turnout			40,827	76.25
	Labour hold		Swing

Aberdare by-election, 1946

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Emlyn Thomas	24,215	68.32	−15.93
	Plaid Cymru	Wynne Islwyn Samuel	7,090	20.0	N/A
	Conservative	Lincoln Hallinan	4,140	11.68	−4.07
Majority			17,125	48.31	−20.2
Turnout			35,445
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1950: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Emlyn Thomas	33,390	75.58	−8.67
	Conservative	Robert N E Hinton	6,098	13.80	−1.95
	Plaid Cymru	Wynne Islwyn Samuel	3,310	7.49	N/A
	Communist	Alistair T M Wilson	1,382	3.13	N/A
Majority			27,292	61.77	−6.74
Turnout			44,180	85.89	+9.64
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1951: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Emlyn Thomas	34,783	78.55	+2.77
	Conservative	J Lewis	6,810	15.38	+1.58
	Plaid Cymru	Wynne Islwyn Samuel	2,691	6.08	−1.41
Majority			27,963	63.17	+1.4
Turnout			44,284	86.12	+0.23
	Labour hold		Swing

Aberdare by-election, 1954

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Reginald Probert	24,658	69.48	−9.07
	Plaid Cymru	Gwynfor Richard Evans	5,671	15.98	N/A
	Conservative	Michael Hilary Arthur Roberts	5,158	14.53	−0.85
Majority			18,987	53.5	−9.67
Turnout			35,487
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1955: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Reginald Probert	29,528	74.96	−3.59
	Conservative	WJA Bain	6,162	15.64	+0.26
	Welsh Nationalist	Trefor Beasley	3,703	9.40	+3.32
Majority			23,366	59.32	−3.85
Turnout			39,393	78.26	−7.26
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1959: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Reginald Probert	30,889	75.63	+0.67
	Conservative	Bernard McGlynn	6,584	16.12	+0.48
	Plaid Cymru	Ken P Thomas	3,367	8.24	N/A
Majority			24,305	59.51	−0.19
Turnout			40,840	83.14	+4.88
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1964: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Reginald Probert	29,106	77.39	+1.76
	Conservative	Peter Nicholas Price	5,780	15.37	−0.75
	Plaid Cymru	Dewi W Thomas	2,723	7.24	−1.0
Majority			23,326	62.02	+2.51
Turnout			37,609	79.15	−3.99
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1966: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Reginald Probert	26,322	73.31	−4.08
	Conservative	Peter Nicholas Price	4,204	11.71	−3.66
	Plaid Cymru	J.E. Williams	3,073	8.6	+1.3
	Communist	Alistair T.M. Wilson	2,305	6.4	N/A
Majority			22,118	61.6	−0.4
Turnout			35,904	77.0	−2.1
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1970: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Reginald Probert	22,817	59.97	−13.34
	Plaid Cymru	Gareth Morgan Jones	11,431	30.04	+21.48
	Conservative	David C Purnell	2,484	6.53	−5.18
	Communist	Alistair T M Wilson	1,317	3.46	−2.96
Majority			11,386	29.92	−31.68
Turnout			38,049	77.92	+0.9
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election February 1974: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ioan Lyonel Evans	23,805	59.5	−0.4
	Plaid Cymru	Glyn Owen	11,973	29.9	−0.1
	Conservative	Michael J. Niblock	3,169	7.9	+1.4
	Communist	Alistair T.M. Wilson	1,038	2.6	−0.9
Majority			11,832	29.6	−0.3
Turnout			39,985	83.26	+5.34
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ioan Lyonel Evans	24,197	63.3	+3.7
	Plaid Cymru	Glyn Owen	8,133	21.3	−8.7
	Conservative	B.G.C. Webb	2,775	7.3	−0.7
	Liberal	G. Hill	2,118	5.5	N/A
	Communist	Alistair T.M. Wilson	1,028	2.7	+0.1
Majority			16,064	42.0	−12.4
Turnout			38,251	79.1	−4.2
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1979: Aberdare

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ioan Lyonel Evans	26,716	71.6	+8.3
	Conservative	D. Deere	6,453	17.3	+10.0
	Plaid Cymru	Phil Richards	3,652	9.8	−11.5
	Communist	Mary Winter	518	1.4	−1.3
Majority			20,263	54.3	+12.3
Turnout			37,339	78.6	−0.5
	Labour hold		Swing

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "A" (part 1)