Battersea South (UK Parliament constituency)

Battersea South
Former borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	County of London, then Greater London
1918–1983
Seats	One
Created from	Battersea (abolished and largely succeeded by Battersea North) Clapham (part of)
Replaced by	Battersea, Tooting

Battersea South was a parliamentary constituency, originally in the County of London and later in Greater London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the UK Parliament (using first-past-the-post voting).

It was created for the 1918 general election, when the former Battersea constituency was divided in two and the Clapham constituency was reduced in size, losing both of its Battersea wards of the four in total. Battersea South was abolished for the 1983 general election, when the bulk of its territory was reunited with Battersea North to form a new Battersea seat. The south of its area formed a new Tooting seat.

Boundaries

Battersea South in London 1918-50

A map showing the wards of Battersea Metropolitan Borough as they appeared in 1916

Battersea South in London 1950-74

1918–1950: The Metropolitan Borough of Battersea wards of Bolingbroke, Broomwood, St John, Shaftesbury, and Winstanley.

1950–1974: The Metropolitan Borough of Battersea wards of Bolingbroke, Broomwood, Lavender, Nightingale, St John, Shaftesbury, Stormont, and Thornton.

1974–1983: The London Borough of Wandsworth wards of Balham, Earlsfield, Fairfield, Nightingale, and Northcote.

The seat was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918. When seats were redistributed by the Representation of the People Act 1948 the boundaries of the constituency were altered to contain only four wards, and Winstanley ward was transferred to Battersea North.^[1] However the wards of the borough were redrawn in 1949 prior to the next general election in 1950.^[2] Accordingly, changes were made under the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1949. Of the 16 new wards, eight were included in each of the Battersea North and South constituencies.^[3][4]

In 1965 Battersea became part of the London Borough of Wandsworth. This, however made no immediate change to the parliamentary constituencies. It was not until the general election of February 1974 that the constituency boundaries were altered.^[5] The Shaftesbury and St John's wards were transferred to Battersea North, while the redrawn constituency incorporated areas previously in the Clapham and Putney seats. These boundaries were used until abolition.^[4]

The constituency was abolished in 1983. Most of its area (Balham, Fairfield and Northcote wards) went to the recreated Battersea seat, with part (Earlsfield and Nightingale wards) passing to Tooting.^[5]

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Viscount Curzon	Conservative
	1929 by-election	William Bennett	Labour
	1931	Sir Harry Selley	Conservative
	1945	Caroline Ganley	Labour Co-operative
	1951	Ernest Partridge	Conservative
	1964	Ernie Perry	Labour
	1979	Alf Dubs
1983		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1970s

General election 1979: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alf Dubs	13,984	45.11
	Conservative	Wellesley Wallace	13,652	44.04
	Liberal	Jennifer Ware	2,802	9.04
	National Front	A Perry	561	1.81	New
Majority			332	1.07
Turnout			31,000	70.92
	Labour hold		Swing

General election October 1974: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ernest Perry	14,284	47.84
	Conservative	Wellesley Wallace	11,433	38.29
	Liberal	Jennifer Ware	3,971	13.3
	More Prosperous Britain	Thomas Keen	170	0.57	New
Majority			2,851	9.55
Turnout			29,856	63.9
	Labour hold		Swing

General election February 1974: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ernest Perry	14,431	42.55
	Conservative	Anthony V Bradbury	12,778	37.68
	Liberal	G Mulholland	5,919	17.45
	National Front	John Clifton	787	2.32
Majority			1,653	4.87
Turnout			33,916	73.02
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1970: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ernest Perry	10,925	49.54
	Conservative	Ian Norman Samuel	9,227	41.84
	Liberal	Raymond Benad	1,183	5.36
	National Front	Tom Lamb	716	3.25	New
Majority			1,698	7.70
Turnout			22,050	63.57
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General election 1966: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ernest Perry	13,651	52.94
	Conservative	Ian Norman Samuel	9,861	38.24
	Liberal	Basil Weekley	2,276	8.83
Majority			3,790	14.70
Turnout			25,788	72.95
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1964: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ernest Perry	12,253	46.84
	Conservative	Ernest Partridge	10,615	40.57
	Liberal	David Layton	3,294	12.59
Majority			1,638	6.27	N/A
Turnout			26,162	72.30
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General election 1959: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ernest Partridge	14,203	48.26
	Labour Co-op	Geoffrey Rhodes	12,451	42.31
	Liberal	William Broderick Mattinson	2,774	9.43
Majority			1,752	5.95
Turnout			29,428	78.85
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1955: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ernest Partridge	15,044	47.57
	Labour	Eric Kenneth I Hurst	14,365	45.42
	Liberal	Alan Cooper-Smith	2,219	7.02	New
Majority			679	2.15
Turnout			31,628	80.60
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1951: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ernest Partridge	17,731	50.71
	Labour Co-op	Caroline Ganley	17,237	49.29
Majority			494	1.42	N/A
Turnout			34,968	85.61
	Conservative gain from Labour Co-op		Swing

General election 1950: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	Caroline Ganley	16,142	46.30
	Conservative	Ernest Partridge	15,774	45.24
	Liberal	Clifford Henry Tyers	2,949	8.46	New
Majority			368	1.06
Turnout			34,865	85.62
	Labour Co-op hold		Swing

Election in the 1940s

General election 1945: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	Caroline Ganley	19,275	61.53
	Conservative	Ernest Partridge	12,050	38.47
Majority			7,225	23.06	N/A
Turnout			31,325	73.04
	Labour Co-op gain from Conservative		Swing

Election in the 1930s

General election 1935: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Harry Selley	21,268	57.3	−9.6
	Labour	Herbert Romeril	15,821	42.7	+11.9
Majority			5,447	14.6	−21.5
Turnout			37.089
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1931: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Harry Selley	27,857	66.9	+24.1
	Labour	William Bennett	12,822	30.8	−13.1
	New Party	Leslie Charles Cuming	909	2.3	New
Majority			15,035	36.1	N/A
Turnout			41,588
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

Election in the 1920s

General election 1929: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	William Bennett	18,113	43.9	+1.6
	Unionist	Harry Selley	17,695	42.8	−14.9
	Liberal	William J. West	5,516	13.3	N/A
Majority			418	1.1	N/A
Turnout			41,324	72.5
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing

1929 Battersea South by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	William Bennett	11,789	45.5	+3.2
	Unionist	Harry Selley	11,213	43.4	−14.3
	Liberal	Vivian Albu	2.858	11.1	New
Majority			576	2.1	N/A
Turnout			25,557	57.7
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing

Curzon

General election 1924: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Francis Curzon	19,588	57.7	+5.7
	Labour	Albert Winfield	14,371	42.3	−5.7
Majority			5,217	15.4	+11.4
Turnout			33,959
	Unionist hold		Swing

General election 1923: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Francis Curzon	14,558	52.0	−9.5
	Labour	Albert Winfield	13,440	48.0	+9.5
Majority			1,118	4.0	−19.0
Turnout			27,998
	Unionist hold		Swing	−9.5

General election 1922: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Francis Curzon	17,685	61.5	−6.7
	Labour	Albert Winfield	11,050	38.5	+23.8
Majority			6,635	23.0	−30.5
Turnout			28,735
	Unionist hold		Swing	−15.2

Election in the 1910s

Lynch

General election 1918: Battersea South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Unionist	Francis Curzon	15,670	68.2
	Labour	Arthur Lynch	3,383	14.7
	Liberal	Joseph William Molden	2,273	9.9
	Independent	John Ernest Philip Jenkin*	1,657	7.2
Majority			12,287	53.5
Turnout			22,983	53.4
	Unionist win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

* Jenkin was supported by and possibly the nominee of the local National Federation of Discharged and Demobilized Sailors and Soldiers branch.

References

1. Representation of the People Act 1948, (1948, C.65), Schedule 1
2. Battersea (Wards) Order 1949 (S.I. 1949/552)
3. The House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) (No. 2) Order, 1949 (S.I. 1949 No. 1440)
4. F A Youngs Jr., Guide to the Local Administrative Units of England, Vol I: Southern England, London, 1979
5. The Parliamentary Constituencies (England) Order 1970 (1970 No. 1674)

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 1)