East Dorset (UK Parliament constituency)

This article is about the former parliamentary constituency. For the former local government district of the same name that existed from 1974 to 2019, see East Dorset.

East Dorset is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was formally known as the Eastern Division of Dorset. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was represented by one Knight of the Shire.

East Dorset
Former county constituency for the House of Commons
1885–1950
Seats	One
Created from	Dorset, Wareham and Poole
Replaced by	Poole and North Dorset

History

Before 1885 the historic county of Dorset, in south-west England, was an undivided three-seat county constituency - see the article on the Dorset constituency. In 1885 the county was divided for Parliamentary purposes into four single-member county constituencies: this constituency, North Dorset, South Dorset and West Dorset (no borough constituencies were created in Dorset in the 1885 redistribution). Each of these divisions comprised roughly a quarter of the area of the county and returned one Member of Parliament.

In the 1918 redistribution, the four Dorset constituencies were retained, but their boundaries were redrawn. East Dorset was reduced in area to about half its former size, with the northern part of the pre-1918 seat being transferred to North Dorset and the southern part to South Dorset.

In the 1950 redistribution, this constituency disappeared. A new borough constituency of Poole was created. Wimborne Minster Urban District and the part of Wimborne and Cranborne Rural District previously in the abolished seat were transferred to the redrawn North Dorset.

Boundaries

1885–1918: The Municipal Borough of Poole, the Sessional Division of Wimborne, and part of the Sessional Division of Wareham.

1918–1950: The Municipal Borough of Poole, the Urban District of Wimborne Minster, the Rural District of Poole, and part of the Rural District of Wimborne and Cranborne.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party	Notes
	1885	Pascoe Glyn	Liberal	Younger son of Lord Wolverton
	1886	George Hawkesworth Bond	Conservative	Died in 1891
	1891 by-election	Hon. Humphrey Sturt	Conservative	Succeeded as 2nd Baron Alington in 1904
	1900
	1904 by-election	Charles Henry Lyell	Liberal	MP for Edinburgh South from April 1910
	January 1910	Hon. Frederick Guest	Liberal	Unseated on petition in May 1910
	June 1910 by-election	Henry Guest	Liberal	MP for Pembroke & Haverfordwest from Dec 1910
	December 1910	Frederick Guest	Liberal	Liberal Chief Whip 1917–1921, Secretary of State for Air 1921–1922
	1918		Coalition Liberal
	1921 by-election
	1922	Gordon Hall Caine	Independent Conservative	Took Conservative Whip January 1923
	1923		Conservative
	1929	Alec Ewart Glassey	Liberal
	1931	Gordon Hall Caine	Conservative
	1945	Mervyn Wheatley	Conservative
	1950	constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1885: East Dorset^[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Pascoe Glyn	4,543	54.2
	Conservative	George Hawkesworth Bond	3,846	45.8
Majority			697	8.4
Turnout			8,389	86.0
Registered electors			9,758
	Liberal win (new seat)

General election 1886: East Dorset^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	George Hawkesworth Bond	4,317	54.1	+8.3
	Liberal	Pascoe Glyn	3,662	45.9	−8.3
Majority			655	8.2	N/A
Turnout			7,979	81.8	−4.2
Registered electors			9,758
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	+8.3

Elections in the 1890s

Bond's death caused a by-election.

By-election, 27 Nov 1891: East Dorset^[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Humphrey Sturt	4,421	52.0	−2.1
	Liberal	Pascoe Glyn	4,074	48.0	+2.1
Majority			347	4.0	−4.2
Turnout			8,495	83.5	+1.7
Registered electors			10,175
	Conservative hold		Swing	−2.1

General election 1892: East Dorset^[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Humphrey Sturt	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

General election 1895: East Dorset^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Humphrey Sturt	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1900s

A.A. Allen

General election January 1900: East Dorset^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Humphrey Sturt	4,776	50.5	N/A
	Liberal	Arthur Acland Allen	4,680	49.5	New
Majority			96	1.0	N/A
Turnout			9,456	81.4	N/A
Registered electors			11,616
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

Charles Lyell

1904 East Dorset by-election^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Charles Lyell	5,929	53.7	+4.2
	Conservative	Charles Van Raalte	5,109	46.3	−4.2
Majority			820	7.4	N/A
Turnout			11,038	87.0	+5.6
Registered electors			12,686
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+4.2

General election January 1906: East Dorset^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Charles Lyell	6,104	50.1	+0.6
	Conservative	Charles Van Raalte	6,083	49.9	−0.6
Majority			21	0.2	N/A
Turnout			12,187	89.9	+8.5
Registered electors			13,557
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1910s

Frederick Guest

General election January 1910: East Dorset^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Frederick Guest	6,957	51.6	+1.5
	Conservative	John Nicholson	6,531	48.4	−1.5
Majority			426	3.2	+3.0
Turnout			13,488	91.2	+1.3
	Liberal hold		Swing	+1.5

Henry Guest

1910 East Dorset by-election^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Henry Guest	6,967	52.2	+0.6
	Conservative	John Nicholson	6,375	47.8	−0.6
Majority			592	4.4	+1.2
Turnout			13,342	90.2	−1.0
	Liberal hold		Swing	+0.6

General election December 1910: East Dorset^[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Frederick Guest	6,811	52.1	+0.5
	Conservative	Maurice George Carr Glyn	6,266	47.9	−0.5
Majority			545	4.2	+1.0
Turnout			13,077	88.4	−1.8
	Liberal hold		Swing

By-election, 1911^[12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Frederick Guest	Unopposed
	Liberal hold

General Election 1914–15

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1914 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

• Liberal: Frederick Guest
• Unionist:

General election 1918: East Dorset

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Liberal	Frederick Guest	11,944	73.4	+21.3
	Labour	Alfred Smith	4,321	26.6	New
Majority			7,623	46.8	+42.6
Turnout			16,265	54.2	−34.2
Registered electors			29,988
	Liberal hold		Swing
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

By-election, 1921

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Liberal	Frederick Guest	Unopposed
	Liberal hold
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

General election 1922: East Dorset

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ind. Unionist	Gordon Hall Caine	12,513	49.1	New
	Labour	Frederick Jesse Hopkins	6,914	27.1	+0.5
	National Liberal	Frederick Guest	6,062	23.8	−49.6
Majority			5,599	22.0	N/A
Turnout			25,489	80.2	+26.0
Registered electors			31,797
	Ind. Unionist gain from National Liberal		Swing

General election 1923: East Dorset

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Gordon Hall Caine	12,480	48.5	−0.6
	Liberal	Richard Evan Williams Kirby	7,535	29.2	+5.4
	Labour	Frederick Jesse Hopkins	5,760	22.3	−4.8
Majority			4,945	19.3	−−2.7
Turnout			25,775	78.5	−1.7
Registered electors			32,828
	Unionist hold		Swing	−3.0

General election 1924: East Dorset

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Gordon Hall Caine	14,479	52.6	+4.1
	Liberal	Alec Glassey	8,828	32.1	+2.9
	Labour	Edward Joseph Stocker	4,205	15.3	−7.0
Majority			5,651	20.5	+1.2
Turnout			27,512	80.3	+1.8
Registered electors			34,249
	Unionist hold		Swing	+0.6

General election 1929: East Dorset

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Alec Glassey	17,810	42.2	+10.1
	Unionist	Gordon Hall Caine	17,533	41.6	−11.0
	Labour	Edward Joseph Stocker	6,819	16.2	+0.9
Majority			277	0.6	N/A
Turnout			42,162	81.5	+1.2
Registered electors			51,756
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+10.6

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: East Dorset

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gordon Hall Caine	20,711	44.5	+2.9
	National Liberal	Alec Glassey	18,801	40.4	−1.8
	Labour	Edward Joseph Stocker	7,009	15.1	−1.1
Majority			1,910	4.1	N/A
Turnout			46,521	82.6	+1.1
	Conservative gain from National Liberal		Swing

General election 1935: East Dorset

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gordon Hall Caine	25,520	53.5	+9.0
	Liberal	Frank Raffety	11,349	23.8	N/A
	Labour	Edward Joseph Stocker	10,822	22.7	+7.6
Majority			14,171	29.7	+25.6
Turnout			47,691	74.4	−8.2
	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: Mervyn Wheatley
• Liberal: David Hutton
• Labour: Hugh Ross Williamson

General election 1945: East Dorset

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Mervyn Wheatley	26,561	43.8	−9.7
	Labour	Charles Fletcher-Cooke	25,093	41.4	+18.7
	Liberal	John Arthur Hugh Mander	8,975	14.8	−9.0
Majority			1,468	2.4	−27.3
Turnout			60,629	75.0	+0.6
	Conservative hold		Swing

See also

• List of former United Kingdom Parliament constituencies

References

1. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
2. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
3. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
4. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
5. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
6. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
7. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
8. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 by Craig
9. Craig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London: Macmillan.
10. Craig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London: Macmillan.
11. Craig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London: Macmillan.
12. Craig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London: Macmillan.

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