Merthyr (UK Parliament constituency)

Merthyr
Former borough constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Seats	one
Created from	Merthyr Tydfil
Replaced by	Merthyr Tydfil

Merthyr was a borough constituency centred on the town of Merthyr Tydfil in 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, when it was largely replaced by the new constituency of Merthyr Tydfil.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
style="background-color: Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1918	Sir Edgar Rees Jones	Coalition Liberal
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1922	Richard Collingham Wallhead	Labour
style="background-color: Template:Independent Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1931		ILP
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1933		Labour
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1934 by-election	S. O. Davies	Labour
1950		constituency abolished: see Merthyr Tydfil

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1918: Merthyr

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir Edgar Rees Jones	14,127	52.7	n/a
	Labour	James Winstone	12,682	47.3	n/a
Majority			1,445	5.4	n/a
Turnout				76.5	n/a
	Liberal win

• endorsed by Coalition Government

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: Merthyr

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Richard Collingham Wallhead	17,516	53.0	+5.7
	Independent	Sir Richard Mathias	15,552	47.0	n/a
Majority			1,964	6.0	11.4
Turnout				90.6	+14.1
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing	n/a

General Election 1923: Merthyr

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Richard Collingham Wallhead	19,511	60.1	+7.1
	Liberal	D. Rowland Thomas	7,403	22.8	n/a
	Unionist	Arthur Charles Fox-Davies	5,548	17.1	n/a
Majority			12,108	37.3	+31.3
Turnout				86.8	−3.8
	Labour hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1924: Merthyr

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Richard Collingham Wallhead	19,882	59.8	−0.3
	Unionist	Arthur Charles Fox-Davies	13,383	40.2	+23.1
Majority			6,499	19.6	−17.7
Turnout				86.9	+0.1
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1929: Merthyr

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Richard Collingham Wallhead	22,701	59.6	−0.2
	Liberal	J Jenkins	8,696	22.8	n/a
	Unionist	Francis Bradley Bradley-Birt	6,712	17.6	−21.6
Majority			14,005	36.8	+17.2
Turnout				85.8	−1.1
	Labour hold		Swing	n/a

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Merthyr

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ind. Labour Party	Richard Collingham Wallhead	24,623	69.4	+9.8
	New Party	Sellick Davies	10,834	30.6	n/a
Majority			13,789	38.8	+2.0
Turnout				80.8	−5.0
	Ind. Labour Party gain from Labour		Swing	n/a

Merthyr by-election, 1934

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Stephen Owen Davies	18,645	51.8	n/a
	Liberal	J. Victor Evans	10,376	28.9	n/a
	Ind. Labour Party	Rev Campbell Stephen	3,508	9.8	n/a
	Communist	Wal Hannington	3,409	9.5	n/a
Majority			8,269	22.9	n/a
Turnout				81.1	+0.3
	Labour gain from Ind. Labour Party		Swing

See also

• Merthyr by-election, 1934

References

• 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 "M" (part 2)