Croydon East (UK Parliament constituency)

Croydon East was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

Croydon East
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
County	Surrey
1950–1955
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Croydon North East and Croydon South
Created from	Croydon North and Croydon South

Politics and history

Croydon East was a short-lived seat for the 1950 general election, creating three seats in the County Borough of Croydon from the previous two, taking in areas from the East Surrey constituency to the south. Croydon East took in areas of the former Croydon North and Croydon South constituencies, and East Surrey. It bordered Croydon West, Croydon North and East Surrey, and, when created, Beckenham.

All three Croydon constituencies were abolished at the 1955 general election, re-creating Croydon South and creating Croydon North East and Croydon North West seats.

For all of its history Croydon East had Conservative Members of Parliament. It saw three elections: the 1950 general election, the 1951 general election and a 1954 by-election. Prior to 1950, Croydon South had been held by Labour but most of its voters were re-drawn into Croydon West.

Boundaries

The County Borough of Croydon wards of Addington, Addiscombe, East, South Norwood, and Woodside.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party	Notes
	1950	Herbert Williams	Conservative	Died July 1954
	1954 by-election	John Hughes-Hallett	Conservative
	1955	constituency abolished

Election results

General election 1950: Croydon East

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Herbert Williams	29,484	53.3	N/A
	Labour	Marian Billson	20,903	37.8	N/A
	Liberal	George Laing Gray	4,882	8.8	N/A
Majority			8,581	15.5	N/A
Turnout			55,269		N/A
	Conservative win

General election 1951: Croydon East

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Herbert Williams	32,282	58.8	+5.5
	Labour	Alexander Bain	22,615	41.2	+3.4
Majority			9,667	17.6	+2.1
Turnout			54,897
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.0

1954 Croydon East by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	John Hughes-Hallett	21,640	56.6	-2.2
	Labour	JW Wellwood	13,546	35.4	-5.8
	Liberal	James Walters	3,060	8.0	New
Majority			8,094	21.2	+3.6
Turnout			38,460	57.5
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.8

References

• The Times House of Commons 1950. The Times. 1950.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 6)