Clay Cross (UK Parliament constituency)

Clay Cross was a county constituency centred on the village of Clay Cross in north-east Derbyshire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

Clay Cross
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Bolsover and North East Derbyshire
Created from	Chesterfield

The constituency was created for the 1918 general election, and abolished for the 1950 general election.

Boundaries

The Urban District of Clay Cross, the Rural District of Blackwell, and part of the Rural District of Chesterfield.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party	Notes
	1918	Thomas Broad	Liberal
	1922	Charles Duncan	Labour	Died 1933
	1933 by-election	Arthur Henderson	Labour
	1935	Alfred Holland	Labour	Died 1936
	1936 by-election	George Ridley	Labour	Died 1944
	1944 by-election	Harold Neal	Labour
1950		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

General election 1918: Clay Cross[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
C	Liberal	Thomas Broad	7,987	54.1	N/A
	Labour	Frank Hall	6,766	45.9	N/A
Majority			1,221	8.2	N/A
Turnout			14,753	50.6	N/A
Registered electors			29,181
	Liberal win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Clay Cross[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Charles Duncan	13,206	57.9	+12.0
	Liberal	Charles Masterman	6,294	27.6	N/A
	National Liberal	Thomas Broad	3,294	14.5	−39.6
Majority			6,912	30.3	N/A
Turnout			22,794	72.1	+21.5
Registered electors			31,611
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing	+25.8

General election 1923: Clay Cross [3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Charles Duncan	11,939	56.0	−1.9
	Unionist	John Sherwood-Kelly	4,881	22.9	N/A
	Liberal	Frank Crane Thornborough	4,488	21.1	−6.5
Majority			7,058	33.1	+2.8
Turnout			21,308	61.4	−10.7
Registered electors			34,729
	Labour hold		Swing	+2.3

General election 1924: Clay Cross [4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Charles Duncan	14,618	64.4	+8.4
	Unionist	John Sherwood-Kelly	8,069	35.6	+12.7
Majority			6,549	28.8	−4.3
Turnout			22,687	67.2	+5.8
Registered electors			33,737
	Labour hold		Swing	−2.2

General election 1929: Clay Cross [5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Charles Duncan	24,480	80.2	+15.8
	Unionist	Abraham Lyons	6,055	19.8	−15.8
Majority			18,425	60.4	+31.6
Turnout			30,535	71.8	+4.6
Registered electors			42,557
	Labour hold		Swing	−15.8

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Clay Cross

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Charles Duncan	21,163	64.6
	Liberal National	Jacob Weinberg	11,611	35.4
Majority			9,552	29.2
Turnout				74.6
	Labour hold		Swing

1933 Clay Cross by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Arthur Henderson	21,931	69.3
	Conservative	John Moores	6,293	19.9
	Communist	Harry Pollitt	3,434	10.8
Majority			15,638
Turnout				71.2
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1935: Clay Cross

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Alfred Holland	24,590	74.6
	Conservative	Bridget Jackson	8,391	25.4
Majority			16,199	49.2
Turnout				73.6
	Labour hold		Swing

1936 Clay Cross by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	George Ridley	24,290	75.1	+0.5
	Conservative	Bridget Jackson	8,042	24.9	-0.5
Majority				50.2	+1.0
Turnout				72.4	-1.2
	Labour hold		Swing	+0.5

Elections in the 1940s

Clay Cross by-election, 1944[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Harold Neal	13,693	76.3
	Independent Anti-Fascist	Phil Hicken	2,336	13.0
	Independent Atlantic Charter	William Douglas-Home	1,911	10.7
Majority			11,357	63.3
Turnout			17,940
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1945: Clay Cross

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Harold Neal	27,538	82.06
	Conservative	William Perkins Bull	6,021	17.94
Majority			21,517	64.12
Turnout				70.82
	Labour hold		Swing

References

1. The Liberal Year Book, 1927
2. The Liberal Year Book, 1927
3. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
4. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
5. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
6. Whitaker's Almanac (1945), p.311

• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 4)