Cardiff South (UK Parliament constituency)

Cardiff South
Cardiff South
Former borough constituency; for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Seats	one
Created from	Cardiff
Replaced by	Cardiff South East and Cardiff West

Cardiff South was a borough constituency in Cardiff, Wales. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The constituency was created for the 1918 general election, and abolished for the 1950 general election. Its final MP was Labour's James Callaghan, elected in 1945 at the age of 33, who would go on to serve the party until 1987, including a spell as prime minister from 1976 to 1979 after several roles in the governments of Harold Wilson.

Boundaries

The County Borough of Cardiff wards of Adamsdown, Grangetown, and South, and the Urban District of Penarth.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	James Cory	Unionist
	1923	Arthur Henderson Jr.	Labour
	1924	Arthur Evans	Unionist
	1929	Arthur Henderson Jr.	Labour
	1931	Arthur Evans	Conservative
	1945	James Callaghan	Labour
1950		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

General election 1918: Cardiff South^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Unionist	James Herbert Cory	7,922	48.5
	Labour	Joshua Thomas Clatworthy	4,303	26.3
	Liberal	Edward Curran	4,126	25.2
Majority			3,619	22.2
Turnout			16,351	57.8
	Unionist win (new seat)

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Cardiff South^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir James Herbert Cory	7,929	36.4	−12.1
	Liberal	Bernard Cyril Freyberg	6,996	32.2	+7.0
	Labour	David Graham Pole	6,831	31.9	+5.6
Majority			933	4.2	−18.0
Turnout			21,756	74.9	+17.1
	Unionist hold		Swing	-9.5

General election 1923: Cardiff South^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Henderson	7,899	37.9	+6.0
	Unionist	Sir James Herbert Cory	7,473	35.8	−0.6
	Liberal	Walter Thomas Layton	5,474	26.3	−5.9
Majority			426	2.1	N/A
Turnout			20,846	70.6	−4.3
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing	+3.3

General election 1924: Cardiff South^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Henry Arthur Evans	11,542	49.8	+14.0
	Labour	Arthur Henderson	9,324	40.3	+2.4
	Liberal	David Evans George Davies	2,287	9.9	−16.4
Majority			2,218	9.5	N/A
Turnout			23,253	78.8	+8.2
	Unionist gain from Labour		Swing	+5.8

General election 1929: Cardiff South^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Henderson	13,686	45.3	+5.0
	Unionist	E T Nethercoat	10,030	33.1	−16.7
	Liberal	C J Cole	6,550	21.6	+11.7
Majority			3,656	12.2	N/A
Turnout			30,266	79.4	+0.6
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing	+11.1

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Cardiff South^[6] Electorate 38,659
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Arthur Evans	17,976	59.8	+26.7
	Labour	Arthur Henderson	12,092	40.2	−5.1
Majority			5,884	19.6	N/A
Turnout			30,068	77.8	−1.6
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General election 1935: Cardiff South^[7] Electorate 38,461
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Henry Arthur Evans	14,925	50.9	−8.9
	Labour	Harry Louis Nathan	14,384	49.1	+8.9
Majority			541	1.8	−17.8
Turnout			29,309	75.8	−2.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1939–40: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the Autumn of 1939, the following candidates had been selected;

Conservative: Henry Arthur Evans
Labour: Sir William Allen Jowitt^[8]

Elections in the 1940s

General election 1945: Cardiff South^[9] Electorate 39,220
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Callaghan	17,489	60.2	+11.1
	Conservative	Arthur Evans	11,545	39.8	−11.1
Majority			5,944	20.4	N/A
Turnout			29,034	73.9	−1.9
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

References

^ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, FWS Craig
^ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, FWS Craig
^ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, F W S Craig
^ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, F W S Craig
^ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, F W S Craig
^ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, F W S Craig
^ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, F W S Craig
^ Report of the Annual Conference, 1939
^ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, F W S Craig

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 2)

[1] British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, FWS Craig

[2] British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, FWS Craig

[3] British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, F W S Craig

[4] British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, F W S Craig

[5] British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, F W S Craig

[6] British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, F W S Craig

[7] British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, F W S Craig

[8] Report of the Annual Conference, 1939

[9] British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, F W S Craig

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v t e Cardiff constituencies
Current UK	Cardiff East Cardiff North Cardiff South and Penarth Cardiff West
Current Senedd	Cardiff Central Cardiff North Cardiff South and Penarth Cardiff West
Historic UK	Cardiff (1542–1918) Cardiff Central (1918–1950) Cardiff Central (1983–2024) Cardiff East (1918–1950) Cardiff South (1918–1950) Llandaff and Barry (1918–1950) Cardiff South East (1950–1983) Cardiff North West (1974–1983)