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Mid Lanarkshire
Mid Lanarkshire
Former county constituency; for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of Scotland	county of Lanark
1885–1918
Seats	One
Created from	South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire
Replaced by	Hamilton, Rutherglen, Lanark

55°48′36″N 4°12′36″W / 55.810°N 4.210°W / 55.810; -4.210

Mid Lanarkshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster) from 1885 to 1918. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system.

Boundaries

The name relates the constituency to the county of Lanark. The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 provided that the Mid division was to consist of "the parishes of Rutherglen, Carmunnock, so much of the parish of Cathcart as adjoins the two last-mentioned parishes, Cambuslang, Blantyre, so much of the parish of Hamilton as lies south and west of the River Clyde, Dalserf and Cambusnethan".^[1]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member^[2]	Party
	1885	Stephen Mason	Liberal
	1888 by-election	John Philipps, later Viscount St Davids	Liberal
	1894 by-election	James Caldwell	Liberal
	Jan. 1910	John Howard Whitehouse	Liberal
1918		constituency abolished

Elections

Decades:

1880s
1890s
1900s
1910s

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1885: Mid Lanarkshire^[3]^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Liberal	Stephen Mason	2,875	39.0
	Conservative	William Robert Bousfield	2,579	35.0
	Independent Liberal	John Clark Forrest	1,913	26.0
Majority			296	4.0
Turnout			7,367	82.4
Registered electors			8,939
	Liberal win (new seat)

General election 1886: Mid Lanarkshire^[3]^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Stephen Mason	3,779	56.5	+17.5
	Liberal Unionist	James Widrington Shand-Harvey	2,909	43.5	+8.5
Majority			870	13.0	+9.0
Turnout			6,688	74.8	−7.6
Registered electors			8,939
	Liberal hold		Swing	+4.5

Mason's resignation caused a by-election.

By-election, 27 Apr 1888: Mid Lanarkshire^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Philipps	3,847	52.1	−4.4
	Conservative	William Robert Bousfield	2,917	39.5	−4.0
	Independent Labour	Keir Hardie	617	8.4	New
Majority			930	12.6	−0.4
Turnout			7,381	80.7	+5.9
Registered electors			9,143
	Liberal hold		Swing	-0.2

Elections in the 1890s

General election 1892: Mid Lanarkshire^[3]^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Philipps	4,611	56.9	+0.4
	Conservative	Robert Edward Stuart Harington-Stuart^[6]	3,489	43.1	−0.4
Majority			1,122	13.8	+0.8
Turnout			8,100	77.2	+2.4
Registered electors			10,496
	Liberal hold		Swing	+0.4

1894 Mid Lanarkshire by-election^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Caldwell	3,965	45.0	−11.9
	Liberal Unionist	Robert Edward Stuart Harington-Stuart	3,635	41.2	−1.9
	Scottish Labour	Robert Smillie	1,221	13.8	New
Majority			330	3.8	−10.0
Turnout			8,821	78.1	+0.9
Registered electors			11,294
	Liberal hold		Swing	-5.0

General election 1895: Mid Lanarkshire^[3]^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Caldwell	4,447	50.4	−6.5
	Conservative	Charles Kincaid MacKenzie	4,376	49.6	+6.5
Majority			71	0.8	−13.0
Turnout			8,823	77.4	+0.2
Registered electors			11,392
	Liberal hold		Swing	−6.5

Elections in the 1900s

General election 1900: Mid Lanarkshire^[3]^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Caldwell	5,267	50.9	+0.5
	Conservative	Charles Kincaid MacKenzie	5,075	49.1	−0.5
Majority			192	1.8	+1.0
Turnout			10,342	79.6	+2.2
Registered electors			12,998
	Liberal hold		Swing	+0.5

General election 1906: Mid Lanarkshire^[3]^[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Caldwell	7,246	58.1	+7.2
	Conservative	Duncan Campbell	4,470	35.8	−13.3
	Musical Copyright Association	A.S. Gibson	758	6.1	New
Majority			2,776	22.3	+20.5
Turnout			12,474	81.1	+1.5
Registered electors			15,375
	Liberal hold		Swing	+10.2

Elections in the 1910s

General election January 1910: Mid Lanarkshire^[3]^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Howard Whitehouse	5,792	38.4	−19.7
	Conservative	John Johnson Pickering	5,401	35.9	+0.1
	Labour	Robert Smillie	3,864	25.7	New
Majority			391	2.5	−19.8
Turnout			15,057	84.6	+3.5
Registered electors			18,484
	Liberal hold		Swing	-9.9

General election December 1910: Mid Lanarkshire^[3]^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Howard Whitehouse	6,033	38.7	+0.3
	Conservative	Henry Keith	5,702	36.6	+0.7
	Labour	Robert Smillie	3,847	24.7	−1.0
Majority			331	2.1	−0.4
Turnout			15,582	84.3	−0.3
Registered electors			18,484
	Liberal hold		Swing	-0.2

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 July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;

Liberal: John Howard Whitehouse
Unionist:
Labour: Robert Smillie

References

^ Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, Seventh Schedule, Part II
^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "L" (part 1)
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j British Parliamentary Election Results 1885–1918, FWS Craig
^ ^a ^b Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench, 1889
^ Whitaker's Almanack, 1893
^ "Person Page - 43205". The Peerage. Wellington, New Zealand: Lundy Consulting. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
^ ^a ^b Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1901
^ Whitaker's Almanack, 1907
^ ^a ^b Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1916