Portsmouth Central (UK Parliament constituency)

Portsmouth Central
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	Hampshire
Major settlements	Portsmouth
1918–1950
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Portsmouth South and Portsmouth West
Created from	Portsmouth

Portsmouth Central was a borough constituency in Portsmouth. 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 for the 1918 general election, when the Representation of the People Act 1918 divided the two-member Portsmouth constituency into three new constituencies; North, South and Central. It was abolished for the 1950 general election.

Boundaries

The County Borough of Portsmouth wards of Buckland, Fratton, Kingston, St Mary, and Town Hall.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Sir Thomas Arthur Bramsdon	Liberal
	1922	Frank John Privett	Conservative
	1923	Sir Thomas Arthur Bramsdon	Liberal
	1924	Sir Harry Seymour Foster	Conservative
	1929	William George Glenvil Hall	Labour
	1931	Ralph Beaumont	Conservative
	1945	Julian Snow	Labour
1950		constituency abolished

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1918 Electorate 35,964

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir Thomas Arthur Bramsdon	10,929	52.2
	Unionist	Col. Sir William Thomas Dupree	6,008	28.7
	Labour	Hugh Hinshelwood	4,004	19.1
Majority			4,921	23.5
Turnout				58.2
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing

A # denotes candidate who was endorsed by the Coalition Government.

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: Portsmouth Central

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Frank John Privett	7,666	26.9	-1.8
	National Liberal	Sir Thomas Fisher	7,659	26.8	n/a
	Liberal	Sir Thomas Arthur Bramsdon	7,129	24.9	-27.3
	Labour	Arthur George Gourd	6,126	21.4	+2.3
Majority			7	0.1	n/a
Turnout
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	n/a

General Election 1923: Portsmouth Central

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir Thomas Arthur Bramsdon	11,493	38.7	+13.8
	Unionist	Frank John Privett	10,231	34.4	+7.5
	Labour	Frank Percy Crozier	7,991	26.9	+5.5
Majority			1,262	4.3
Turnout				78.2
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+3.2

General Election 1924: Portsmouth Central

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Harry Seymour Foster	14,028	46.1	+11.7
	Labour	William George Glenvil Hall	10,525	34.5	+7.6
	Liberal	Francis James Gray	5,926	19.4	-19.3
Majority			3,503	11.6
Turnout				80.3
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election 1929: Portsmouth Central

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	William George Glenvil Hall	15,153	42.4	+7.9
	Unionist	Sir Thomas W. Comyn-Platt	13,628	38.1	-8.0
	Liberal	Charles Waley Cohen	6,993	19.5	+0.1
Majority			1,525	4.3	15.9
Turnout				74.3	-6.0
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing	+7.9

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931 Electorate 49,927

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Hon. Ralph Edward Blackett Beaumont	24,623	62.9
	Labour	William George Glenvil Hall	14,512	37.1
Majority			10,111	25.8
Turnout
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1935 Electorate 50,558

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Hon. Ralph Edward Blackett Beaumont	21,578	60.0
	Labour	David Freeman	10,733	29.9
	Liberal	E J Thornley	3,612	10.1
Majority			10,845	30.1
Turnout				71.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

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 from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected; Conservative: Hon. Ralph Beaumont, Labour: Peter R Pain.

General Election 1945 Electorate 36,255

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Julian Ward Snow	14,745	55.3
	Conservative	Hon. Ralph Edward Blackett Beaumont	11,345	42.6
	Democratic	WRC Foster	561	2.1
Majority
Turnout				73.5
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

• The Democratic Party was a mainly Portsmouth based right wing party formed in 1942.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 2)