Oldham (UK Parliament constituency)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oldham Borough constituency
Created:	1832
Abolished:	1950
Type:	House of Commons
Members:	two

Oldham was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Oldham, in the historic county of Lancashire and the modern region of North West England. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The constituency was created by the Great Reform Act of 1832 and was abolished before the 1950 general election when it was split into the Oldham East and Oldham West consituencies.

The Oldham constituency was perhaps most notable for being where Winston Churchill began his political career. Although taking two attempts to succeed, in the 1900 general election Churchill was elected as the member of Parliament for Oldham. He held the constituency for the Conservative Party until he defected from them in defence of free trade in 1904. He then represented the Liberal Party as MP for the seat until the 1906 general election.

[edit] Members of Parliament

Election	1st Member		1st Party		2nd Party
1832		John Fielden	Liberal	William Cobbett	Liberal
1835				John Frederick Lees	Conservative
1837				William Augustus Johnson	Liberal
1847		William Johnson Fox	Liberal	John Duncuft	Conservative
1852		John Morgan Cobbett	Liberal	John Duncuft	Conservative
1852				William Johnson Fox	Liberal
1857				James Platt	Liberal
1857				William Johnson Fox	Liberal
1862				John Tomlinson Hibbert	Liberal
1865		John Platt	Liberal
1872		John Morgan Cobbett ^a	Conservative
1874		John Morgan Cobbett ^a	Conservative	Frederick Lowten Spinks	Conservative
1877		John Tomlinson Hibbert	Liberal	Frederick Lowten Spinks	Conservative
1880				Hon. Edward Lyulph Stanley	Liberal
1885				James Mackenzie Maclean	Conservative
1886		Elliott Lees	Conservative	James Mackenzie Maclean	Conservative
1892		Joshua Milne Cheetham	Liberal	Rt Hon Sir John Tomlinson Hibbert	Liberal
1895		Robert Ascroft	Conservative	James Francis Oswald	Conservative
1899		Rt Hon. Alfred Emmott	Liberal	Walter Runciman	Liberal
1900				Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill ^b	Conservative
1904				Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill ^b	Liberal
1906				John Albert Bright	Liberal
1910				Sir Andrew William Barton	Liberal
1911		Edmund Robert Bartley Denniss ^c	Conservative		Liberal
1918		Edmund Robert Bartley Denniss ^c	Coalition Conservative		Coalition Liberal
1922		Sir Edward William Macleay Grigg	National Liberal	William John Tout	Labour
1923			Liberal	William John Tout	Labour
1924			Liberal	Duff Cooper	Conservative
1925		William Martin Wiggins	Liberal	Duff Cooper	Conservative
1929		Rev. Gordon Lang	Labour	James Wilson	Labour
1931		Anthony Crommelin Crossley	Conservative	Hamilton William Kerr	Conservative
1935		John Samuel Dodd	National Liberal	Hamilton William Kerr	Conservative
1945		Frank Fairhurst	Labour	Charles Leslie Hale	Labour
1950	Multi member constituency abolished - see Oldham East and Oldham West

Notes:-

^a Cobbett last contested the seat as a Liberal in 1865. He was a Conservative candidate from 1868.
^b Churchill changed his party allegiance in April 1904.
^c Denniss changed his surname to Bartley-Denniss, when he was knighted in 1922.

[edit] References

Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (The Macmillan Press 1977)
British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1974)
British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press, revised edition 1977)
Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Volume I 1832-1885, edited by M. Stenton (The Harvester Press 1976)
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)
Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume IV 1945-1979, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1981)