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Wisbech is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was created upon the abolition of an undivided Cambridgeshire county constituency in 1885 and was itself abolished in 1918.

Wisbech
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1885–1918
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Isle of Ely
Created from	Cambridgeshire

Boundaries

The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 split the former three-member Cambridgeshire parliamentary county into three single-member divisions. One of these was the Northern or Wisbech Division. During the committee stage of the 1885 bill, the MP for Cambridge University, Henry Raikes made an unsuccessful attempt to rename the constituency as the Northern or Isle of Ely Division.[1]

The constituency consisted of the towns of Chatteris, March, Whittlesey and the Borough and port of Wisbech with the surrounding parishes of Benwick, Doddington, Downham, Elm, Leverington, Littleport, Manea, Newton, Parson Drove, Thorney, Tydd St Giles, Welches Dam and Wimblington.[2]

The area was bounded by the constituencies of Spalding to the north, North West Norfolk and South West Norfolk to the east, the other Cambridgeshire divisions of Newmarket and Chesterton to the south and Ramsey, Peterborough and North Northamptonshire to the west.

This fenland constituency was dominated by a district of Liberal-inclined smallholders. The towns in the division, predominantly Conservative Wisbech and the more Liberal-inclined March, were outvoted by the rural areas.

Upon its abolition under the Representation of the People Act 1918, the constituency formed the bulk of the new parliamentary county of Isle of Ely.

Members of Parliament

Year		Member	Party
	1885	Sir John Rigby	Liberal
	1886	Charles William Selwyn	Conservative
	1891	Arthur Brand	Liberal
	1895	Charles Tyrrell Giles	Conservative
	1900	Arthur Brand	Liberal
	1906	Cecil Beck	Liberal
	1910	Neil Primrose	Liberal
	1917	Colin Coote	Liberal
	1918	constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1885: Wisbech[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Rigby	3,919	52.1
	Conservative	Charles William Selwyn	3,596	47.9
Majority			323	4.2
Turnout			7,515	78.8
Registered electors			9,532
	Liberal win (new seat)

General election 1886: Wisbech[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Charles William Selwyn	4,169	57.5	+9.6
	Liberal	John Rigby	3,082	42.5	−9.6
Majority			1,087	15.0	N/A
Turnout			7,251	76.1	−2.7
Registered electors			9,532
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	+9.6

Elections in the 1890s

Selwyn's resignation caused a by-election.

By-election, 23 Jul 1891: Wisbech [3][4][5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Arthur Brand	3,979	51.7	+9.2
	Conservative	Surr William Duncan[6]	3,719	48.3	−9.2
Majority			260	3.4	N/A
Turnout			7,698	65.7	−10.4
Registered electors			11,725
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+9.2

General election 1892: Wisbech[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Arthur Brand	4,311	50.7	+8.2
	Conservative	Surr William Duncan[6]	4,189	49.3	−8.2
Majority			122	1.4	N/A
Turnout			8,500	72.2	−3.9
Registered electors			11,775
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+8.2

Brand was appointed Treasurer of the Household, requiring a by-election.

By-election, 3 Apr 1894: Wisbech[3][7][5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Arthur Brand	4,363	50.8	+0.1
	Conservative	Sackville Stopford-Sackville	4,227	49.2	−0.1
Majority			136	1.6	+0.2
Turnout			8,590	81.7	+9.5
Registered electors			10,514
	Liberal hold		Swing	+0.1

General election 1895: Wisbech[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Charles Tyrrell Giles	4,368	51.3	+2.0
	Liberal	Arthur Brand	4,145	48.7	−2.0
Majority			223	2.6	N/A
Turnout			8,513	81.1	+8.9
Registered electors			10,495
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	+2.0

Elections in the 1900s

General election 1900: Wisbech[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Arthur Brand	4,007	51.0	+2.3
	Conservative	Charles Tyrrell Giles	3,846	49.0	−2.3
Majority			161	2.0	N/A
Turnout			7,853	76.7	−4.4
Registered electors			10,232
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+2.3

General election 1906: Wisbech[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Cecil Beck	5,125	55.7	+4.7
	Conservative	T C Garfit	4,080	44.3	−4.7
Majority			1,045	11.4	+9.4
Turnout			9,205	83.4	+6.7
Registered electors			11,033
	Liberal hold		Swing	+4.7

Elections in the 1910s

General election January 1910: Wisbech[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Neil Primrose	5,279	51.0	−4.7
	Conservative	T C Garfit	5,079	49.0	+4.7
Majority			200	2.0	−9.4
Turnout			10,358	88.4	+5.0
	Liberal hold		Swing	−4.7

General election December 1910: Wisbech[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Neil Primrose	5,401	52.7	+1.7
	Conservative	Robert Cecil	4,857	47.3	−1.7
Majority			544	5.4	+3.4
Turnout			10,258	87.6	−0.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	+1.7

1917 Wisbech by-election[3][8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Colin Coote	Unopposed
	Liberal hold

Redistribution

The constituency ceased to exist when the Representation of the People Act 1918 redefined constituencies throughout Great Britain and Ireland. The new constituencies followed the boundaries of the administrative counties and county districts created by the Local Government Acts of 1888 and 1894. The historic county of Cambridgeshire had been divided by the legislation into two administrative counties: Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. Each of these, along with the Parliamentary Borough of Cambridge, became single-member constituencies.[2] The whole of the former Wisbech constituency was included in the new Isle of Ely seat, to which were added the City of Ely and surrounding district.[2]

See also

• Parliamentary representation from Cambridgeshire
• List of former United Kingdom Parliament constituencies

References

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
• Social Geography of British Elections 1885-1910, by Henry Pelling (Macmillan 1967)
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 4)

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