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Combined English Universities was a university constituency represented in the United Kingdom Parliament (from 1918 until 1950). It was formed by enfranchising and combining all the English universities, except for Cambridge, Oxford and London which were already separately represented. The constituency effectively represented the red brick universities and Durham University with two members of parliament.

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Combined English Universities
Former University constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950

Boundaries

This university constituency was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918 and abolished in 1950 by the Representation of the People Act 1948.

The original proposal of the Speaker's Conference, which considered electoral reform before the 1918 legislation was prepared, was to combine all the English and Welsh universities except for Oxford and Cambridge into a three-member constituency. However, during consideration of the legislation it was agreed that London University alone should continue to return one member. The University of Wales was also given its own seat. The other universities, which were still to be combined, had their proposed representation reduced to two members.[1]

Combined English Universities was not a physical area. Its electorate consisted of the graduates of the universities included in the seat.

The universities represented by this constituency were Birmingham, Bristol, Durham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Reading (from August 1928) and Sheffield.

The constituency returned two members of Parliament, elected at general elections by the single transferable vote method of proportional representation. However, the first past the post system was used in by-elections.

Members of Parliament

This is a list of people who were elected to represent these English universities in the Parliament of the United Kingdom between 1918 and 1950. The elections were not held on the polling dates for general elections in the territorial constituencies. The university constituency elections were held over five days, not on the ordinary polling date, so that plural voting graduates could vote in their place of residence and then visit their university to participate in its election.

• Constituency created (1918)

Election			First member	First party	Second member	Second party
		1918	H. A. L. Fisher	Coalition Liberal	Sir Martin Conway	Coalition Conservative
		1922		National Liberal		Conservative
		1923		Liberal
		1926 by-election	Sir Alfred Hopkinson	Conservative
		1929	Eleanor Rathbone	Independent
		1931			Sir Reginald Craddock	Conservative
		1937 by-election			Edmund Harvey	Independent Progressive
		1945			Kenneth Lindsay	Independent
		1946 by-election	Henry Strauss	Conservative
1950			University constituencies abolished

Elections

There were six contested STV elections. The MPs in 1935 were returned unopposed. By-elections, to fill a single seat, used the first past the post or relative majority electoral system.

1910s – 1920s – 1930s – 1940s –

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1918: Combined English Universities (2 seats)

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3
C	Liberal	H. A. L. Fisher	48.09	959
C	Unionist	Martin Conway	15.20	303	465	777
	Labour	John A. Hobson	18.36	366	454	481
	Unionist	Herbert Williams	18.36	366	410	eliminated
Electorate: 2,357   Valid: 1,994   Quota: 665   Turnout: 84.60%
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: Combined English Universities (2 seats)

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Unionist	Martin Conway	32.8	968	982	1,093
	National Liberal	H. A. L. Fisher	27.7	819	821	849	883	1,009
	Independent	John Strong	19.4	571	575	595	611	813
	Labour	Leonard Woolf	12.2	361	361	365	366	eliminated
	Ind U	Wilfred Faraday	4.8	141	206	eliminated
	Ind U	Sidney C. Lawrence	3.1	90	eliminated
Electorate: 3,967   Valid: 2,946   Quota: 983   Turnout: 74.3

General election 1923: Combined English Universities (2 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Martin Conway	1,711	44.1	+11.3
	Liberal	H. A. L. Fisher	1,316	34.0	+5.3
	Labour	Joseph Findlay	850	21.9	+9.7
Total votes			3,877
Quota			1,293
Turnout			5,008	77.4	+3.1

• As two candidates achieved the quota only one count was necessary

General Election 1924: Combined English Universities (2 seats)

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	Unionist	Martin Conway	50.4	2,231
	Liberal	H. A. L. Fisher	30.1	1,333	2,064
	Labour	Joseph Findlay	19.5	861	885
Electorate: 5,655   Valid: 4,425   Quota: 1,476   Turnout: 78.2

1926 Combined English Universities by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Alfred Hopkinson	2,343	53.9	+3.5
	Liberal	Ramsay Muir	2,000	46.1	+12.1
Majority			343	7.8	N/A
Turnout			4,343	66.7	-11.5
Registered electors			6,513
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	N/A

General Election 1929: Combined English Universities (2 seats)

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	Unionist	Martin Conway	26.8	2,679	4,321
	Independent	Eleanor Rathbone	33.3	3,331	3,394
	Liberal	Robert Seymour Conway	22.3	2,231	2,281
	Unionist	Amherst Selby-Bigge	17.6	1,762	eliminated
Electorate: 13,775   Valid: 10,003   Quota: 3,335   Turnout: 72.6

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Combined English Universities (2 seats)

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4
	Independent	Eleanor Rathbone	37.2	5,096
	Conservative	Reginald Craddock	26.5	3,633	3,685	3,754	4,858
	National Labour	William Jowitt	20.1	2,759	3,003	3,207	3,632
	Conservative	Herbert Williams	12.8	1,748	1,819	1,922	eliminated
	New Party	Harold Nicolson	3.4	461	623	eliminated
Electorate: 19,109   Valid: 13,697   Quota: 4,567   Turnout: 71.7

General election 1935: Combined English Universities (2 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Reginald Craddock	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Independent	Eleanor Rathbone	Unopposed	N/A	N/A

1937 Combined English Universities by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent Progressive	Edmund Harvey	6,596	47.4	N/A
	Conservative	Francis Oswald Lindley	4,952	35.6	N/A
	Independent Liberal	Henry Brackenbury	2,373	17.0	N/A
Majority			1,644	11.8	N/A
Turnout			13,921	48.3	N/A
Registered electors			28,808
	Independent Progressive gain from Conservative		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Combined English Universities (2 seats)

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Independent Progressive	Eleanor Rathbone	53.3	11,176
	Independent	Kenneth Lindsay	9.2	1,923	3,503	3,856	4,528	5,826
	Independent Labour	Stanley Wormald	15.3	3,212	3,973	4,081	4,473	4,675
	National	Eric Cuthbert Arden	11.6	2,433	3,073	3,389	3,829	eliminated
	Independent	John Henry Richardson	5.3	1,124	1,995	2,341	eliminated
	Independent	A.R. Foxall	5.3	1,105	1,437	eliminated
Electorate: 41,976   Valid: 20,973   Quota: 6,992   Turnout: 50.0

By-Election 13–18 March 1946: Combined English Universities

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Strauss	5,483	30.0	N/A
	Independent Progressive	Mary Stocks	5,124	28.0	N/A
	Independent Liberal	Ernest Simon	4,028	22.0	N/A
	Independent Labour	Stanley Wormald	3,414	18.7	N/A
	British People's Party	Gerard Stephen Oddie	239	1.3	N/A
Majority			359	2.0	N/A
Turnout			18,288	42.1	-7.9
Registered electors			43,438
	Conservative gain from Independent		Swing	N/A

Notes

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (May 2020)

References

• Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1972). Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885–1972. Parliamentary Reference Publications.
• Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949. Macmillan.
• Pugh, Martin (1978). Electoral Reform in War and Peace 1906–18. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Stenton, M.; Lees, S., eds. (1979). Who's Who of British members of parliament: Volume III 1919–1945. The Harvester Press.
• Stenton, M.; Lees, S., eds. (1981). Who's Who of British members of parliament, Volume IV 1945–1979. The Harvester Press.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 5)

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