Croydon South (historic UK Parliament constituency)

Croydon South was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system.

This seat should not be confused with the current Croydon South constituency

Croydon South
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	Surrey until 1965, then Greater London
1955–1974
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Croydon Central (bulk) Croydon South (small portion)
Created from	Croydon East and Croydon West
1918–1950
Number of members	One
Type of constituency	Borough constituency
Replaced by	Croydon East and Croydon West
Created from	Croydon

It was created for the 1918 general election when the County Borough of Croydon had grown so the Croydon seat was split into two seats.

In 1974 the seat was redrawn and renamed Croydon Central; following the 1965 addition of Purley and Coulsdon to the London Borough of Croydon in 1974 a fresh seat of Croydon South was created to the south predominantly from East Surrey rather than from the historic Croydon South.

It did not exist from 1950 to 1955 as an east/west division of the town was chosen instead. Its voters elected twice Labour candidates, for the 1945 and 1966 Parliaments when the Labour Party received strong majorities, and at all other elections elected Conservative candidates.

Boundaries

1918-1950: The County Borough of Croydon wards of Central, East, South, and West.

1955-1965: The County Borough of Croydon wards of Addington, Broad Green, Central, Shirley, South, and Waddon.

1965-1974: The London Borough of Croydon wards of Addington, Broad Green, Central, Shirley, South, and Waddon.

Members of Parliament

MPs 1918–1950

Election		Name	Party	Notes
	1918	Ian Malcolm	Conservative	previously MP for Croydon
	1919 by-election	Allan Smith	Conservative
	1923	William Mitchell-Thomson	Conservative
	1932 by-election	Herbert Williams	Conservative
	1945	David Rees-Williams	Labour
	1950	constituency abolished

From 1950 to 1955 the seat was divided into Croydon East and Croydon West.

MPs 1955–1974

Election		Name	Party
	1955	Richard Thompson	Conservative
	1966	David Winnick	Labour
	1970	Richard Thompson	Conservative
	Feb 1974	constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

1918 General Election[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Unionist	Ian Malcolm	17,813	71.8
	Labour	H.T. Muggeridge[2]	7,006	28.2
Majority			10,807	43.6
Turnout			24,819	55.0
Registered electors			45,115
	Unionist win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

1919 Croydon South by-election [3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Unionist	Allan Smith	11,777	55.2	−16.6
	Liberal	Howard Houlder	9,573	44.8	New
Majority			2,204	10.4	−33.2
Turnout			21,350	45.5	−9.5
Registered electors			46,900
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

1922 General Election [4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Allan Smith	15,356	47.3	−24.5
	Labour	H.T. Muggeridge	8,942	27.5	−0.7
	Liberal	Thomas Dobson	8,183	25.2	N/A
Majority			6,414	19.8	−23.8
Turnout			32,481	66.4	+11.4
Registered electors			48,904
	Unionist hold		Swing	−11.9

1923 General Election [5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	William Mitchell-Thomson	14,310	45.5	−1.8
	Labour	H.T. Muggeridge	9,926	31.6	+4.1
	Liberal	Wynne Cemlyn-Jones	7,208	22.9	−2.3
Majority			4,384	13.9	−5.9
Turnout			31,444	63.4	−3.0
Registered electors			49,634
	Unionist hold		Swing	−3.0

1924 General Election [6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	William Mitchell-Thomson	23,734	64.6	+19.1
	Labour	H.T. Muggeridge	12,979	35.4	+3.8
Majority			10,755	29.2	+15.3
Turnout			36,713	72.0	+8.6
Registered electors			50,964
	Unionist hold		Swing	+7.7

General election 1929: Croydon South [7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	William Mitchell-Thomson	23,258	49.2	−15.4
	Labour	E.W. Wilton	13,793	29.2	−6.2
	Liberal	Albert Sigismund Elwell-Sutton	10,218	21.6	New
Majority			9,465	20.0	−9.2
Turnout			47,269	67.4	−4.6
Registered electors			70,107
	Unionist hold		Swing	−4.6

Elections in 1930s

General election 1931: Croydon South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Mitchell-Thomson	40,672	80.34
	Labour	T. Crawford	9,950	19.66
Majority			30,722	60.69
Turnout			50,622	68.33
	Conservative hold		Swing

1932 Croydon South by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Herbert Williams	19,126	67.5	−12.8
	Labour	Rudolph Putnam Messel	9,189	32.5	+12.8
Majority			9,937	35.0	−25.7
Turnout			28,315	38.2	−30.1
	Conservative hold		Swing	−12.8

General election 1935: Croydon South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Herbert Williams	31,971	62.3	-18.0
	Labour	T Crawford	14,900	29.0	+9.3
	Liberal	David William Alun Llewellyn	4,440	8.7	New
Majority			17,071	33.3	-27.6
Turnout			45,860	65.2	-3.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in 1940s

General election 1945: Croydon South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Rees-Williams	27,650	53.4	+24.4
	Conservative	Herbert Williams	24,147	46.6	−15.7
Majority			3,503	6.8	N/A
Turnout			51,797	70.1	+4.9
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in 1950s

General election 1955: Croydon South[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Richard Thompson	27,359	56.98
	Labour	Arthur Carr	20,659	43.02
Majority			6,700	13.96
Turnout			48,018	77.23
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1959: Croydon South [9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Richard Thompson	29,284	58.16
	Labour	Frederic A Messer	22,069	41.84
Majority			8,215	16.32
Turnout			51,353	79.13
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in 1960s

General election 1964: Croydon South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Richard Thompson	24,854	52.75
	Labour	Tyrell Burgess	22,265	47.25
Majority			2,589	5.50
Turnout			47,119	74.27
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1966: Croydon South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	David Winnick	21,496	44.73
	Conservative	Richard Thompson	21,415	44.56
	Liberal	W Edward P Babbs	5,146	10.71	New
Majority			81	0.17	N/A
Turnout			48,057	76.10
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in 1970s

General election 1970: Croydon South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Richard Thompson	25,986	49.74
	Labour	David Winnick	22,283	42.65
	Liberal	Michael R Lane	3,673	7.03
	Independent	C Thornton	303	0.58	New
Majority			3,703	7.09	N/A
Turnout			52,245	71.29
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Politics and history of the constituency

The seat was created in 1918 and the first MP was Ian Malcolm, who had been the MP for all of Croydon. H.T. Muggeridge, father of Malcolm Muggeridge, fought the seat for Labour four times from 1918, later becoming MP for Romford. The seat saw a by-election in 1932, won by Herbert Williams.

Croydon South had twice seen Croydon's only Labour MPs before the 1990s. David Rees-Williams held the seat from the 1945 Labour landslide until unfavourable boundary changes in 1950. David Winnick won the seat in 1966 before losing in 1970. Otherwise the seat, and indeed the rest of Croydon, had always been firm Conservative territory.

From 1950 until 1955 the seat was divided into east and west, represented by Conservatives Herbert Williams and Richard Thompson respectively.

References

1. F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow 1949
2. Debrett's House of Commons 1922
3. F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow 1949
4. F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow 1949
5. F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow 1949
6. F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow 1949
7. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
8. The Times' Guide to the House of Commons. 1955.
9. 1959 Assembla.com

Sources

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 6)