Kensington South (UK Parliament constituency)

Kensington South
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1885–February 1974
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Kensington
Created from	Chelsea

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

Kensington South in the Metropolitan area 1885-1918

Kensington South in the Parliamentary County of London 1918-50

Kensington South in the Parliamentary County of London 1950-74

Kensington Metropolitan Borough wards in 1916

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election, and abolished for the February 1974 general election. In every postwar election until its abolition, it was the safest Conservative seat (excluding Northern Irish constituencies) in the country.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1885	Sir Algernon Borthwick	Conservative
	1895 by-election	Lord Warkworth (known as Earl Percy from 1899)	Conservative
	1910	Lord Claud Hamilton	Conservative
	1918	Sir William Davison	Conservative
	1945 by-election	Richard Law	Conservative
	1950	Sir Patrick Spens	Conservative
	1959	William Roots	Conservative
	1968 by-election	Sir Brandon Rhys-Williams	Conservative
Feb 1974		constituency abolished

Boundaries

The constituency was originally part of the Chelsea constituency. Following the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, the seat was a single-member division consisting of all of the Parliamentary borough of Kensington lying south of the Uxbridge Road.

Following the Representation of the People Act 1918, the constituency was defined as consisting of the Brompton, Earls Court, Holland, Queen's Gate, and Redcliffe wards of the Royal Borough of Kensington.

In the 1950 redistribution, the Brompton ward was moved into the Chelsea division. The seat remained unchanged until its abolition in 1974.

In 1965, the London County Council area was absorbed by the new Greater London Council. The constituency was included in a new London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, although the Parliamentary boundaries were not altered immediately.

In the redistribution that took effect in 1974, the constituency was abolished. Earl's Court and Redcliffe wards became part of the Chelsea constituency. Holland and Queen's Gate became part of the Kensington constituency.

Election results

Elections in the 1880s

1885 General Election: Kensington, South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Sir Algernon Borthwick	4,602	68.3
	Liberal	Montagu Hughes Cookson	2,138	31.7
Majority			2,464	36.6
Turnout			8,859	76.1
	Conservative win

1886 General Election: Kensington, South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Sir Algernon Borthwick	4,156	80.3	12.0
	Liberal	Henry Fearnside Speed	1,022	19.7	-12.0
Majority			3,134	60.6
Turnout			8,859	58.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1890s

1892 General Election: Kensington, South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Sir Algernon Borthwick	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

1895 General Election: Kensington, South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Sir Algernon Borthwick	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

By-election: 28 November 1895
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Lord Warkworth	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

Elections in the 1900s

1900 General Election: Kensington, South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Earl Percy	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

1906 General Election: Kensington, South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Earl Percy	4,835	74.9	n/a
	Liberal	Sir Edward Loughlin O'Malley	1,624	25.1	n/a
Majority			3,211	49.8	n/a
Turnout			9,223	70.0	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

Elections in the 1910s

January 1910 General Election: Kensington, South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Lord Claud John Hamilton	5,771	81.6	6.7
	Liberal	G.S. MacIlwaine	1,301	18.4	-6.7
Majority			4,470	63.2
Turnout			9,159	77.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

December 1910 General Election: Kensington, South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Lord Claud John Hamilton	5,093	83.1	1.5
	Liberal	George Rodhouse Reid	1,033	16.9	-1.5
Majority			4,060	66.2
Turnout			9,159	66.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 14 December 1918: Kensington South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Sir William Henry Davison	10,693	66.8
	National Party	Brig-Gen. Ernest Makins	5,306	33.2	n/a
Majority			5,387	33.6
Turnout			30,888	51.8
	Unionist hold		Swing

endorsed by the Coalition Government

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 15 November 1922: Kensington South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Sir William Henry Davison	15,760	76.0
	Independent	Ferdinand William Cavendish-Bentinck	4,964	24.0	n/a
Majority			10,796	52.0
Turnout			35,684	58.1
	Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 6 December 1923: Kensington South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Sir William Henry Davison	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Unionist hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 29 October 1924: Kensington South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Sir William Henry Davison	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Unionist hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 30 May 1929: Kensington South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Sir William Henry Davison	28,049	66.9	n/a
	Liberal	Sir Hugh Michael Seely	7,570	18.0	n/a
	Independent Conservative	Rayner Goddard	6,354	15.1	n/a
Majority			20,479	48.9	n/a
Turnout			70,593	59.5	n/a
	Unionist hold		Swing	n/a

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 27 October 1931: Kensington South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Sir William Henry Davison	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 14 November 1935: Kensington South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Sir William Henry Davison	38,297	88.9	n/a
	Labour	Charles Henry Hartwell	4,779	11.1	n/a
Majority			33,518	77.8	n/a
Turnout			69,520	62.0	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 5 to 19 July 1945: Kensington South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Sir William Henry Davison	22,166	69.8
	Labour	Patricia Frances Strauss	6,014	18.9
	Liberal	Ft-Lt. Francis N Beaufort-Palmer	3,586	11.3
Majority			16,152	50.9
Turnout			46,727	67.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

By-election, 20 November 1945
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Rt Hon. Richard Kidston Law	15,846	81.7	+11.9
	Liberal	Lancelot Dykes Spicer	3,559	18.3	+7.0
Majority			12,287	68.4
Turnout			52,750	36.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 23 February 1950: Kensington South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Sir William Patrick Spens	32,870	73.1
	Labour	Marcel Philip Picard	8,002	17.8
	Liberal	John Beeching Frankenburg	4,079	9.1
Majority			24,868	55.3
Turnout			63,319	71.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 25 October 1951: Kensington South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Sir William Patrick Spens	34,592	79.5
	Labour	Michael Clynes Parker	8,894	20.5
Majority			25,698	59.0
Turnout			63,419	68.6
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 26 May 1955: Kensington South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Sir William Patrick Spens	32,051	82.5
	Labour	Mrs Marjorie Macrae Crane	6,804	17.5
Majority			25,247	65.0
Turnout			62,724	62.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 8 October 1959: Kensington South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	William Lloyd Roots	26,606	74.3
	Liberal	Gurth Christian Hoyer-Millar	4,666	13.0
	Labour	Ivor Seward Richard	4,525	12.6
Majority			21,940	61.3
Turnout			58,023	61.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 15 October 1964: Kensington South
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	William Lloyd Roots	21,668	68.0
	Labour	Barrington J Stead	5,300	16.6
	Liberal	Anthony A W Dix	4,916	15.4
Majority			16,368	51.3
Turnout			56,157	56.8
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election of 31 March 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	William Lloyd Roots	21,050	65.1
	Labour	Jonathan V Rosenhead	6,419	19.8
	Liberal	Thomas Oslaf Kellock	4,871	15.1
Majority			14,631	45.2
Turnout			55,660	58.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

By-election of 14 March 1968^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Sir Brandon Meredith Rhys-Williams	16,489	75.5
	Liberal	Thomas Oslaf Kellock	2,742	12.6
	Labour	Clive Bradley	1,874	8.6
	Independent	Sinclair Eustace	675	3.1
	Independent	William Gold	59	0.3
Majority			13,747	63.0
Turnout				40.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General election of 18 June 1970
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Sir Brandon Meredith Rhys-Williams	21,591	75.7
	Labour	Mrs Faith M Bridges	6,928	24.3
Majority			14,663	51.4
Turnout			57,182	49.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20090821022708/http://www.by-elections.co.uk/68.html

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "K" (part 1)
British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1974)
Debrett’s Illustrated Heraldic and Biographical House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886
Debrett’s House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1901
Debrett’s House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1918

Historic constituencies in London

1885	Battersea Bermondsey Bethnal Green North East Bethnal Green South West Bow and Bromley Brixton Camberwell North Chelsea City of London Clapham Deptford Dulwich Finsbury Central Finsbury East Fulham Greenwich Hackney Central Hackney North Hackney South Haggerston Hammersmith Hampstead Holborn Hoxton Islington East Islington North Islington South Islington West Kennington Kensington North Kensington South Lambeth North Lewisham Limehouse Marylebone East Marylebone West Mile End Newington West Norwood Paddington North Paddington South Peckham Poplar Rotherhithe Southwark West St George St George's Hanover Square St Pancras East St Pancras North St Pancras South St Pancras West Stepney Strand Walworth Wandsworth Westminster Whitechapel Woolwich

1918	Balham and Tooting Battersea North Battersea South Bermondsey West Bethnal Green North East Bethnal Green South West Bow and Bromley Brentford and Chiswick Brixton Camberwell North Camberwell North West Clapham Dulwich Chelsea City of London Deptford Finsbury Fulham East Fulham West Greenwich Hackney Central Hackney North Hackney South Hammersmith North Hammersmith South Hampstead Holborn Islington East Islington North Islington South Islington West Kennington Kensington North Kensington South Lambeth North Lewisham East Lewisham West Limehouse Mile End Norwood Paddington North Paddington South Peckham Poplar South Putney Rotherhithe St Marylebone St Pancras North St Pancras South East St Pancras South West Shoreditch Southwark Central Southwark North Southwark South East Stoke Newington Streatham Wandsworth Central Westminster Abbey Westminster St George's Whitechapel and St George's Woolwich East Woolwich West

1950	Barnet Battersea North Battersea South Bermondsey Bethnal Green Brentford and Chiswick Brixton Chelsea Cities of London and Westminster Clapham Deptford Dulwich Fulham East Fulham West Greenwich Hackney South Hammersmith North Hammersmith South Hampstead Holborn and St Pancras South Islington East Islington North Islington South West Kensington North Kensington South Lewisham North Lewisham South Lewisham West Norwood Paddington North Paddington South Peckham Poplar Putney St Marylebone St Pancras North Streatham Shoreditch and Finsbury Southwark Stepney Stoke Newington and Hackney North Vauxhall Wandsworth Central Woolwich East Woolwich West

1955	Barnet Barons Court Battersea North Battersea South Bermondsey Bethnal Green Brentford and Chiswick Brixton Chelsea Cities of London and Westminster Clapham Deptford Dulwich Fulham Greenwich Hackney Central Hammersmith North Hampstead Holborn and St Pancras South Islington East Islington North Islington South West Kensington North Kensington South Lewisham North Lewisham South Lewisham West Norwood Paddington North Paddington South Peckham Poplar Putney St Marylebone St Pancras North Shoreditch and Finsbury Southwark Stepney Stoke Newington and Hackney North Streatham Vauxhall Wandsworth Central Woolwich East Woolwich West

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