Roxburgh and Selkirk (UK Parliament constituency)

Roxburgh and Selkirk was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster) from 1918 to 1955. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system.

Roxburgh and Selkirk
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1955
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Roxburgh, Selkirk & Peebles
Created from	Roxburghshire Peebles and Selkirk Hawick Burghs

Boundaries

The constituency was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918, and first used in the 1918 general election, to cover the counties of Roxburgh and Selkirk.

At least nominally, the counties had been covered previously by the Roxburghshire and Peebles and Selkirk constituencies.

For the 1955 general election, as a result of the First Periodical Review of the Boundary Commission, the Roxburgh and Selkirk constituency was abolished and the Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles constituency was created, covering the counties of Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Peebles.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party	Notes
	1918	Robert Munro, later Baron Alness	Coalition Liberal
	1922	Sir Thomas Henderson	National Liberal
	1923	Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, Earl of Dalkeith	Unionist	later Duke of Buccleuch & Queensberry
	1935	Lord William Montagu Douglas Scott	Unionist
	1950	Archie Macdonald	Liberal
	1951	Charles Donaldson	Unionist	subsequently MP for Roxburgh, Selkirk & Peebles
1955		constituency abolished: see Roxburgh, Selkirk & Peebles

Election results

Election in the 1910s

Robert Munro

General election 1918: Roxburgh & Selkirk [1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
C	Liberal	Robert Munro	13,043	70.1	n/a
	Labour	Thomas Hamilton	5,574	29.9	n/a
Majority			7,469	40.2	n/a
Turnout			22,407	55.4	n/a
	Liberal win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

Sir H. Grant

General election 1922: Roxburgh & Selkirk [2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	National Liberal	Thomas Henderson	10,356	51.7
	Liberal	Alfred Hamilton Grant	9,698	48.3	n/a
Majority			658	3.4
Turnout			20,054	60.9
	National Liberal hold		Swing	n/a

General election 1923: Roxburgh & Selkirk [3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Walter Scott	11,258	43.1	n/a
	Liberal	Thomas Henderson	8,046	30.8	n/a
	Labour	George Dallas	6,811	26.1	n/a
Majority			3,212	12.3	n/a
Turnout			26,115	78.2	+17.3
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	n/a

George Dallas

General election 1924: Roxburgh & Selkirk [4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Walter Scott	12,684	45.8
	Liberal	John McIlroy Wylie	7,737	27.9
	Labour	George Dallas	7,266	26.2
Majority			4,947	17.9
Turnout			27,687
	Unionist hold		Swing

General election 1929: Roxburgh & Selkirk [5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Walter Scott	13,510	38.0	-7.8
	Liberal	Arthur Robert McDougal	12,232	34.4	+6.5
	Labour	Robert Gibson	9,803	27.6	+1.4
Majority			1,278	3.6	-14.3
Turnout			35,545	78.5
	Unionist hold		Swing	-7.2

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Roxburgh & Selkirk[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Walter Scott	21,394	55.1	+17.1
	Liberal	David Edwin Keir	17,420	44.9	+10.5
Majority			3,974	10.2	+6.6
Turnout			38,814	84.4	+5.9
	Unionist hold		Swing

General election 1935: Roxburgh & Selkirk [7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Walter Scott	18,342	50.0	-5.1
	Liberal	Arthur Robert McDougal	12,264	33.4	-11.5
	Labour	James Alexander Cuthburt Thomson	6,099	16.6	n/a
Majority			6,078	16.6
Turnout			36,705	78.0
	Unionist hold		Swing	+3.2

Elections in the 1940s

A General election was due to take place before the end of 1940, but was postponed due to the Second World War. By 1939, the following candidates had been selected to contest this constituency;

• Unionist Party: William Scott
• Liberal Party: Arthur Robert McDougal

General election 1945: Roxburgh & Selkirk

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	William Scott	13,232	37.9	-12.1
	Liberal	Archie Macdonald	11,604	33.2	-0.2
	Labour	LP Thomas	10,107	28.9	+12.3
Majority			1,628	4.7
Turnout				73.7
	Unionist hold		Swing	-6.0

Elections in the 1950s

General election 1950: Roxburgh & Selkirk

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Archie Macdonald	15,347	39.4	+6.2
	Unionist	William Scott	14,191	36.4	-1.5
	Labour	LP Thomas	9,413	24.2	-4.7
Majority			1,156	3.0	-1.7
Turnout				82.1	+8.4
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+3.9

General election 1951: Roxburgh & Selkirk

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Charles Donaldson	16,438	40.6	+4.2
	Liberal	Archie Macdonald	15,609	38.6	-0.8
	Labour	Thomas White	8,395	20.8	-3.4
Majority			829	2.0	5.0
Turnout				84.9	+2.8
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	+2.5

References

1. Whitaker's Almanack, 1920
2. The Times, 17 November 1922
3. The Times, 8 December 1923
4. Oliver & Boyd's Edinburgh Almanack, 1927
5. The Times, 1 June 1929
6. Whitaker's Almanack, 1934
7. Whitaker's Almanack, 1939

Sources

• 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 "R" (part 2)