Royton (UK Parliament constituency)

Royton
Former county constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Seats	One
Created from	Middleton
Replaced by	Heywood and Royton

Royton was, from 1918 to 1950, a parliamentary constituency of the United Kingdom, centred on Royton in North West England. 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, and abolished for the 1950 general election.

Boundaries

The Urban Districts of Crompton, Littleborough, Milnrow, Norden, Royton, Wardle, and Whitworth.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Sir Wilfrid Sugden	Coalition Conservative
	1923	William Gorman	Liberal
	1924	Arthur Vernon Davies	Conservative
	1931	Harold Sutcliffe
1950		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

General election 1918: Royton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Unionist	Wilfrid Hart Sugden	12,434	57.1	N/A
	Labour	James Crinion	4,875	22.4	N/A
	Liberal	Hugh Fullerton	4,451	20.5	N/A
Majority			7,559	34.7	N/A
Turnout			21,760	61.7	N/A
Registered electors			35,239
	Unionist win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Royton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Wilfrid Hart Sugden	12,388	42.1	−15.0
	Liberal	William Gorman	11,295	38.3	+17.8
	Labour	John B Battle	5,776	19.6	−2.8
Majority			1,093	3.8	−30.9
Turnout			29,459	83.4	+22.7
Registered electors			35,318
	Unionist hold		Swing	−16.4

General election 1923: Royton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Gorman	14,836	49.6	+11.3
	Unionist	Sir Wilfrid Hart Sugden	12,320	41.2	−0.9
	Labour	Rev. James Barton Turner	2,740	9.2	−10.4
Majority			2,516	8.4	N/A
Turnout			29,896	82.9	−0.5
Registered electors			36,041
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+6.1

General election 1924: Royton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Arthur Vernon Davies	13,859	44.1	+2.8
	Liberal	William Gorman	11,433	36.4	−13.2
	Labour	Albert E. Wood	6,156	19.6	+10.4
Majority			2,426	7.7	N/A
Turnout			31,448	86.3	+3.4
Registered electors			36,449
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	+8.0

General election 1929: Royton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Arthur Vernon Davies	15,051	38.4	−5.6
	Liberal	Harold Derbyshire	13,347	34.1	−2.3
	Labour	Albert E. Wood	10,763	27.5	+7.9
Majority			1,704	4.3	−3.3
Turnout			39,161	82.9	−3.4
Registered electors			47,266
	Unionist hold		Swing	−1.7

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Royton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Harold Sutcliffe	21,044	51.2	+12.8
	Liberal	Ronald Fitz-John Walker	14,142	34.4	+0.3
	Labour	G Illingworth	5,913	14.4	−13.1
Majority			6,902	16.8	+12.5
Turnout			41,099	85.9
	Conservative hold		Swing	+6.2

General election 1935: Royton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Harold Sutcliffe	20,510	52.2	+1.0
	Liberal	Ronald Fitz-John Walker	9,910	25.2	−9.2
	Labour	Leonard Oakes	8,845	22.5	+8.2
Majority			10,600	27.0	+10.2
Turnout			39,264	81.7	−4.2
	Conservative hold		Swing	+5.1

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: Harold Sutcliffe
• Liberal: Mayne Knight

General election 1945: Royton

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Harold Sutcliffe	15,388	41.9	−10.3
	Labour	Hervey Rhodes	13,753	37.4	+14.9
	Liberal	A Mayne Knight	7,618	20.7	−4.5
Majority			1,635	4.5	−25.2
Turnout				81.1	−0.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	-12.6

References

Craig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.

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