Holborn (UK Parliament constituency)

Holborn
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1885–1950
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Holborn and St Pancras South
Created from	Finsbury

Holborn was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Holborn district of Central London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Holborn in the Metropolitan area, boundaries 1885-1918

File:Holborn1918.png

Holborn in the County of London, boundaries 1918-50

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election, and abolished for the 1950 general election, when it was largely replaced by the new constituency of Holborn & St Pancras South.

Boundaries

The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 provided that the constituency was to consist of-

• so much of the Holborn District as comprises the Parishes of—
  • St Andrew Holborn Above the Bars with St George the Martyr, and
  • Saffron Hill, Hatton Garden, Ely Rents and Ely Place.

• The St Giles District:
  • Gray's Inn,
  • Furnival's Inn,
  • Staple Inn, and
  • Lincoln's Inn.

1918-1950: The Metropolitan Borough of Holborn.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1885	Francis Duncan	Conservative
	1888	Gainsford Bruce	Conservative
	1892	Sir Charles Hall	Conservative
	1900	Sir James Remnant	Conservative
	1912		Unionist
	1928	Stuart James Bevan	Unionist
	1935	Sir Robert Tasker	Conservative
	1945	Max Aitken	Conservative
1950		constituency abolished: see Holborn and St Pancras South

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

Charles Harrison

General Election 1885: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Francis Duncan	4,047	62.1
	Liberal	Charles Harrison	2,473	37.9
Majority			1,574	24.2
Turnout			9,802	66.5	n/a
	Conservative win (new seat)

Dadabhai Naoroji

General Election 1886: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Francis Duncan	3,651	65.2
	Liberal	Dadabhai Naoroji	1,950	34.8
Majority			1,701	30.4
Turnout			9,802	57.1
	Conservative hold		Swing	+3.1

Earl Compton

Holborn by-election, 1888

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gainsford Bruce	4,398	56.2
	Liberal	Earl Compton	3,433	43.8
Majority			965	12.4
Turnout			11,383	68.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	-9.0

Elections in the 1890s

General Election 1892: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gainsford Bruce	4,949	66.6
	Lib-Lab	G. Bateman	2,477	33.4
Majority			2,472	33.2
Turnout			12,214	60.8
	Conservative hold		Swing	+10.4

Holborn by-election, 1892

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Charles Hall	unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 1895: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Charles Hall	unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1900s

Holborn by-election, 1900

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Farquharson Remnant	unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 1900: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Farquharson Remnant	unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 1906: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Farquharson Remnant	3,881	58.9	N/A
	Liberal	S. Miall	2,706	41.1	N/A
Majority			1,175	17.8	N/A
Turnout			9,242	71.3	N/A
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1910s

General Election January 1910: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Farquharson Remnant	4,847	68.2
	Liberal	Sir Richard Stapley	2,262	31.8
Majority			2,585	36.4
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing	+9.3

Cooke-Taylor

General Election December 1910: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	James Farquharson Remnant	4,313	72.8
	Liberal	Charles Ralph Cooke-Taylor	1,615	27.2
Majority			2,698	45.6
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing	+4.6

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 and by the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;

• Unionist: Sir James Farquharson Remnant
• Liberal:

General Election 1918: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir James Farquharson Remnant	6,874	86.3
	Independent Labour	John Hazelwood Worrall	1,091	13.7	N/A
Majority			5,783	72.6
Turnout			20,371	39.1
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

• endorsed by the Coalition Government

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir James Farquharson Remnant	8,996	70.5
	Liberal	John Salter Stooke-Vaughan	3,757	29.5	n/a
Majority			5,239	41.0
Turnout			26,991	47.2
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 1923: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir James Farquharson Remnant	7,892	59.4	-11.1
	Liberal	John Salter Stooke-Vaughan	3,349	25.2	-4.3
	Labour	Augustus West	2,044	15.4	n/a
Majority			4,543	34.2	-13.0
Turnout			27,218	48.8	+1.6
	Unionist hold		Swing	-3.4

General Election 1924: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir James Farquharson Remnant	11,428	75.5
	Labour	W.W. Messer	3,718	24.5
Majority			7,710	51.0
Turnout			27,490	55.1
	Unionist hold		Swing	+3.5

Holborn by-election, 1928

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Stuart James Bevan	6,365	59.7
	Labour	Percy Allott	2,238	21.0
	Liberal	Thomas Edward Morton	2,062	19.3
Majority			4,127	38.7
Turnout			27,357	39.0
	Unionist hold		Swing	-6.2

General Election 1929: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Stuart James Bevan	10,093	56.8
	Labour	Fitzroy William Hickinbottom	4,530	25.5
	Liberal	Thomas Edward Morton	3,150	17.7
Majority			5,563	31.3
Turnout			32,862	54.1
	Unionist hold		Swing	-3.7

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Stuart James Bevan	16,094	84.7
	Labour	Fitzroy W. Hickinbottom	2,916	15.3
Majority			13,178	69.4
Turnout			33,543	56.7
	Conservative hold		Swing	+19.1

File:Robert Inigo Tasker.jpg

Sir Robert Tasker

General Election 1935: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Sir Robert Inigo Tasker	11,654	72.9
	Labour	Richard S. Jeffries	4,325	27.1
Majority			7,329	45.8
Turnout			32,641	49.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	-11.8

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Holborn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John William Maxwell Aitken	6,061	54.1
	Labour	Irene Marcouse	5,136	45.9
Majority			925	8.2
Turnout			16,394	68.3
	Conservative hold		Swing	-18.8

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "H" (part 3)