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Kensington South was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Kensington district of west London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Kensington South
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1885–February 1974
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Kensington
Created from	Chelsea

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election, and abolished for the February 1974 general election. In every postwar election until its abolition, it was the safest Conservative seat (excluding Northern Irish constituencies) in the country.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1885	Sir Algernon Borthwick	Conservative
	1895 by-election	Lord Warkworth (known as Earl Percy from 1899)	Conservative
	1910	Lord Claud Hamilton	Conservative
	1918	Sir William Davison	Conservative
	1945 by-election	Richard Law	Conservative
	1950	Sir Patrick Spens	Conservative
	1959	William Roots	Conservative
	1968 by-election	Sir Brandon Rhys-Williams	Conservative
Feb 1974		constituency abolished

Boundaries

Prior to 1885, the area was originally part of the Chelsea constituency. Following the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, the new Kensington South seat was a single-member constituency consisting of all of the parliamentary borough of Kensington south of the Uxbridge Road.

Following boundary changes under the Representation of the People Act 1918, the constituency was defined as consisting of the Royal Borough of Kensington wards of Brompton, Earl's Court, Holland, Queen's Gate, and Redcliffe.

In the 1950 redistribution, Brompton ward was transferred to the Chelsea constituency. The constituency was thus now defined as consisting of the Royal Borough of Kensington wards of Earl's Court, Holland, Queen's Gate, and Redcliffe. It then remained unchanged until its abolition in 1974.

In 1965, under major local government boundary changes, the London County Council area was absorbed by the new Greater London Council, and the constituency was included in a new London Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. This did not affect parliamentary boundaries for another nine years, however.

In the 1974 redistribution, this constituency disappeared. Earl's Court and Redcliffe wards became part of the redrawn Chelsea constituency, while Holland and Queen's Gate wards became part of the new Kensington constituency.

Election results

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1885: Kensington, South[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Algernon Borthwick	4,602	68.3
	Liberal	Montagu Hughes Cookson	2,138	31.7
Majority			2,464	36.6
Turnout			6,740	76.1
Registered electors			8,859
	Conservative win (new seat)

General election 1886: Kensington, South[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Algernon Borthwick	4,156	80.3	+12.0
	Liberal	Henry Fearnside Speed	1,022	19.7	-12.0
Majority			3,134	60.6	+24.0
Turnout			5,178	58.4	−17.7
Registered electors			8,859
	Conservative hold		Swing	+12.0

Elections in the 1890s

General election 1892: Kensington, South[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Algernon Borthwick	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

General election 1895: Kensington, South[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Algernon Borthwick	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

By-election: 28 November 1895[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Percy	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Elections in the 1900s

General election 1900: Kensington, South[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Percy	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

General election 1906: Kensington, South[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Percy	4,835	74.9	N/A
	Liberal	Edward O'Malley	1,624	25.1	New
Majority			3,211	49.8	N/A
Turnout			6,459	70.0	N/A
Registered electors			9,223
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1910s

General election January 1910: Kensington, South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Claud Hamilton	5,771	81.6	+6.7
	Liberal	G.S. MacIlwaine	1,301	18.4	-6.7
Majority			4,470	63.2	+13.4
Turnout			9,159	77.2	+7.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election December 1910: Kensington, South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Claud Hamilton	5,093	83.1	+1.5
	Liberal	George Rodhouse Reid	1,033	16.9	-1.5
Majority			4,060	66.2	+3.0
Turnout			9,159	66.9	-10.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1918: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Unionist	William Davison	10,693	66.8	−16.3
	National	Ernest Makins	5,306	33.2	New
Majority			5,387	33.6	−32.6
Turnout			15,999	51.8	−15.1
Registered electors			30,888
	Unionist hold		Swing	−16.3
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	William Davison	15,760	76.0	+9.2
	Independent	* Ferdinand Cavendish-Bentinck	4,964	24.0	New
Majority			10,796	52.0	+18.4
Turnout			20,724	58.1	+6.3
Registered electors			35,684
	Unionist hold		Swing	+9.2

*Cavendish-Bentinck was incorrectly labelled by the media as a National Liberal but corrected this label as 'anti-Conservative'.

General election 1923: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	William Davison	Unopposed
	Unionist hold

General election 1924: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	William Davison	Unopposed
	Unionist hold

General election 1929: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	William Davison	28,049	66.9	N/A
	Liberal	Hugh Seely	7,570	18.0	New
	Ind. Unionist	Rayner Goddard	6,354	15.1	New
Majority			20,479	48.9	N/A
Turnout			41,973	59.5	N/A
Registered electors			70,593
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Davison	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

General election 1935: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Davison	38,297	88.9	N/A
	Labour	Charles Henry Hartwell	4,779	11.1	New
Majority			33,518	77.8	N/A
Turnout			69,520	62.0	N/A
	Conservative hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1940s

General election 1945: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Davison	22,166	69.8	-19.1
	Labour	Patricia Strauss	6,014	18.9	+8.8
	Liberal	Francis N Beaufort-Palmer	3,586	11.3	New
Majority			16,152	50.9	-26.9
Turnout			46,727	67.9	+5.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

By-election, 20 November 1945

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Richard Law	15,846	81.7	+11.9
	Liberal	Lancelot Spicer	3,559	18.3	+7.0
Majority			12,287	68.4	+17.5
Turnout			52,750	36.8	-29.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General election 1950: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Patrick Spens	32,870	73.1	+3.3
	Labour	Marcel Philip Picard	8,002	17.8	-1.1
	Liberal	John Frankenburg	4,079	9.1	-2.2
Majority			24,868	55.3	+4.4
Turnout			63,319	71.0	+3.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1951: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Patrick Spens	34,592	79.5	+6.4
	Labour	Michael Clynes Parker	8,894	20.5	+2.7
Majority			25,698	59.0	+5.7
Turnout			63,419	68.6	-2.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1955: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Patrick Spens	32,051	82.5	+3.0
	Labour	Marjorie Macrae Crane	6,804	17.5	-3.0
Majority			25,247	65.0	+6.0
Turnout			62,724	62.0	-6.6
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1959: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Roots	26,606	74.3	-8.2
	Liberal	Gurth Hoyer-Millar	4,666	13.0	New
	Labour	Ivor Richard	4,525	12.6	-4.9
Majority			21,940	61.3	-3.7
Turnout			58,023	61.7	-0.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General election 1964: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Roots	21,668	68.0	-3.3
	Labour	Barrington J Stead	5,300	16.6	+4.0
	Liberal	Anthony A W Dix	4,916	15.4	+2.4
Majority			16,368	51.3	-10.0
Turnout			56,157	56.8	-3.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1966: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Roots	21,050	65.1	-2.9
	Labour	Jonathan V Rosenhead	6,419	19.8	+3.2
	Liberal	Thomas Kellock	4,871	15.1	-0.3
Majority			14,631	45.3	-6.0
Turnout			55,660	58.1	+1.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

By-election of 14 March 1968[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Brandon Rhys-Williams	16,489	75.5	+10.4
	Liberal	Thomas Kellock	2,742	12.6	-2.5
	Labour	Clive Bradley (executive)	1,874	8.6	-11.2
	Independent	Sinclair Eustace	675	3.1	New
	Independent	William Gold	59	0.3	New
Majority			13,747	62.9	+17.6
Turnout			21,839	40.0	-18.1
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General election 1970: Kensington South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Brandon Rhys-Williams	21,591	75.7	+10.6
	Labour	Faith M Bridges	6,928	24.3	+4.5
Majority			14,663	51.4	+6.1
Turnout			57,182	49.9	-8.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "K" (part 1)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1974)
• Debrett’s Illustrated Heraldic and Biographical House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1886
• Debrett’s House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1901
• Debrett’s House of Commons and the Judicial Bench 1918

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