North Cumberland (UK Parliament constituency)

North Cumberland (also "Cumberland Northern")[1][2] was a parliamentary constituency in Cumberland which 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 of election.

North Cumberland
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Penrith and The Border
Created from	Eskdale and Penrith

The constituency was created for the 1918 general election, and abolished for the 1950 general election.

Boundaries

The Urban Districts of Holme Cultram and Wigton, the Rural Districts of Brampton, Carlisle, and Longtown, and part of the Rural District of Wigton. (Carlisle, Brampton and Longtown rural districts merged in 1930 into the Border Rural District)

Members of Parliament

Year		Member	Whip
	1918	Christopher Lowther	Unionist
	1921		Independent Parliamentary Group
	1922	Donald Howard	Unionist
	1926	Sir Fergus Graham	Unionist
	1935	Wilfrid Roberts	Liberal
1950		Constituency abolished

Election results

Election in the 1910s

General election 14 December 1918: Cumberland North[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Unionist	Christopher Lowther	Unopposed
	Unionist win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Election in the 1920s

General election 1922: Cumberland North [3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Donald Howard	8,815	50.8	N/A
	Liberal	Geoffrey Howard	8,544	49.2	New
Majority			271	1.6	N/A
Turnout			17,359	79.9	N/A
Registered electors			21,714
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

General election 1923: Cumberland North [3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Donald Howard	9,288	50.6	−0.2
	Liberal	Richard Durning Holt	9,070	49.4	+0.2
Majority			218	1.2	−0.4
Turnout			18,358	83.2	+3.3
Registered electors			22,075
	Unionist hold		Swing	−0.2

General election 1924: Cumberland North [3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Donald Howard	10,586	54.2	+3.6
	Liberal	Richard Durning Holt	6,821	34.9	−14.5
	Labour	B. Brooke	2,125	10.9	New
Majority			3,765	19.3	+18.1
Turnout			19,532	86.0	+2.8
Registered electors			22,717
	Unionist hold		Swing	+9.1

1926 North Cumberland by-election [3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Fergus Graham	8,867	47.8	−6.4
	Liberal	Richard Durning Holt	6,871	37.1	+2.2
	Labour	H. W. McIntyre	2,793	15.1	+4.2
Majority			1,996	10.7	−8.6
Turnout			18,331	82.0	−4.0
Registered electors			22,607
	Unionist hold		Swing	−4.3

General election 1929: Cumberland North [3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Fergus Graham	10,392	44.9	−9.3
	Liberal	Richard Durning Holt	9,661	41.7	+6.8
	Labour	C. A. O'Donnell	3,092	13.4	+2.5
Majority			731	3.2	-16.1
Turnout			23,145	83.7	−2.3
Registered electors			27,653
	Unionist hold		Swing	−8.1

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Cumberland North[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Fergus Graham	12,504	52.7	+7.8
	Liberal	Wilfrid Roberts	11,277	47.3	+5.6
Majority			1,277	5.4	+2.2
Turnout			23,781	84.6	+0.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1935: Cumberland North[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Wilfrid Roberts	12,521	51.9	-0.8
	Conservative	Fergus Graham	11,627	48.1	+0.8
Majority			894	3.8	N/A
Turnout			24,148	83.9	-0.7
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing

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;

• Liberal: Wilfrid Roberts
• Conservative:

Election in the 1940s

General election 1945: Cumberland North[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Wilfrid Roberts	12,053	50.4	-1.5
	Conservative	Ronald Nicholson Carr	11,855	49.6	+1.5
Majority			198	0.83	-3.0
Turnout			23,908	75.7	-8.2
	Liberal hold		Swing

References

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

1. Cumberland Northern PDivCon Vision of Britain
2. MPs for Cumberland Northern Hansard Millbank
3. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig