Isle of Ely (UK Parliament constituency)

Isle of Ely
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
County	Cambridgeshire
1918–1983
Number of members	One
Replaced by	NE Cambridgeshire SE Cambridgeshire
Created from	Wisbech Newmarket (part) Chesterton (part)

Isle of Ely was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, centred on the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire. Until its abolition in 1983, it elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

History

The Isle had previously been represented by two members of the First and Second Protectorate Parliaments, between 1654 and 1658.

The twentieth century constituency was created in 1918. The territory included in the new seat was similar to that previously constituting the Wisbech constituency (the north division of Cambridgeshire). That constituency was dominated by the Fens, a district of Liberal inclined smallholders. The towns in the Wisbech division, predominantly Conservative Wisbech and the more Liberal inclined March, tended to be outvoted by the rural areas.

The small city of Ely had formerly been part of the Newmarket constituency (the east division of Cambridgeshire). Pelling suggests Ely was Conservative "because of the cathedral and its fairly substantial middle-class population".

In 1918 the former Liberal MP for Wisbech, Colin Coote, was returned unopposed as a Coalition Liberal. In 1922 Coote contested the seat again, this time as a National Liberal candidate. A Labour candidate appeared for the first time. The anti-Conservative vote was badly split (National Liberal 27.7% and Labour 21.4%), so the Conservative soldier Lieutenant Colonel Norman Coates was easily elected. Coates retired and did not seek re-election in 1923.

In 1923 the reunited Liberal Party nominated a member of the family of one of their richest members. Henry Mond was the son of the industrialist Alfred Mond (later the 1st Lord Melchett). He was able to squeeze the Labour vote down to 12.4%, which was sufficient for a narrow Liberal victory as part of the party's best election result after the First World War.

In the 1924 general election, both the Conservative and Labour candidates increased their vote. Mond was defeated. The new MP was the Conservative, Sir Hugh Lucas-Tooth, Bt. Lucas-Tooth had a long political career, not leaving the House of Commons until 1970, but he only retained this seat for one Parliament until his defeat in 1929.

The Monds had joined the Conservative Party in 1926 after a disagreement with Lloyd George's land policy. However another rich Liberal stood in this constituency in 1929, the flamboyant James de Rothschild. He retained the seat for three Parliaments, serving from 1929 to 1945. In the 1945 general election de Rothschild came third, the first time this had happened to any Liberal candidate in the constituency.

It must have appeared that the days when the Isle seat was a Conservative/Liberal marginal had ended in 1945. The new Conservative MP, Harry Legge-Bourke, had a majority of 6.1% over Labour, with the Liberal almost 10% further behind. He retained the seat until his death in 1973, with Labour in second place. The Liberal Party did not contest general elections in 1951, 1955, 1959, 1964 and 1970. The Liberal vote in 1966 was only 11.4%.

Clement Freud gained the seat for the Liberals from the Conservatives in a 1973 by-election during the height of the 1970s Liberal revival. He retained this seat until it was abolished in 1983; however, Freud surprisingly lost its successor seat in 1987.

The constituency was renamed in 1983, with most of the territory incorporated into the constituency of North East Cambridgeshire.

Boundaries

In 1918 the county constituency was defined as having the same boundaries as the administrative county of the Isle of Ely, which had been formed in 1889 from a traditional sub-division of the historic county of Cambridgeshire in East Anglia.

In 1965 the Isle of Ely area was merged into the new administrative county of Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely and in 1974 this merged with Huntingdon and Peterborough to form the non-metropolitan county of Cambridgeshire.

In the next redistribution of parliamentary seats, which took effect in 1974, the Isle constituency was defined as comprising the Municipal Borough of Wisbech; the urban districts of Chatteris, Ely, March, and Whittlesey; and the rural districts of Ely, North Witchford, and Wisbech.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
Wisbech and parts of Newmarket and Chesterton prior to 1918
	1918	Colin Reith Coote	Coalition Liberal
	1922	Norman Coates	Conservative
	1923	Henry Mond	Liberal
	1924	Hugh Lucas-Tooth	Conservative
	1929	James de Rothschild	Liberal
	1945	Harry Legge-Bourke	Conservative
	1973	Clement Freud	Liberal
1983		constituency abolished, NE Cambs and part of SE Cambs from 1983

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

Colin Coote

General Election 1918: Isle of Ely Electorate 34,132

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Coalition Liberal	Capt. Colin Reith Coote	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Coalition Liberal win

• denotes candidate who was endorsed by the Coalition Government.

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: Isle of Ely

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Norman Coates	13,552	50.9	n/a
	National Liberal	Colin Reith Coote	7,359	27.7	n/a
	Labour	William George Hall	5,688	21.4	n/a
Majority			6,193	23.2	n/a
Turnout				72.0	n/a
	Unionist gain from National Liberal		Swing	n/a

General Election 1923: Isle of Ely Electorate 37,656

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Henry Ludwig Mond	11,476	44.7	+17.0
	Unionist	Maximilian Gowran Townley	11,009	42.9	-8.0
	Labour	Richard Henry Kennard Hope	3,172	12.4	-9.0
Majority			467	1.8	25.0
Turnout				68.1	-3.9
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+12.5

General Election 1924: Isle of Ely Electorate 38,281

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Hugh Vere Huntly Duff Munro-Lucas-Tooth	13,344	46.1	+3.2
	Liberal	Henry Ludwig Mond	11,381	39.3	-5.4
	Labour	Dermot Johnston Freyer	4,235	14.6	+2.2
Majority			1,963	6.8	8.6
Turnout				75.7	+7.6
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	+4.3

General Election 1929: Isle of Ely

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Armand Edmond de Rothschild	16,111	43.9	+4.6
	Unionist	Sir Hugh Vere Huntly Duff Munro-Lucas-Tooth	13,628	37.1	-9.0
	Labour	Dermot Johnston Freyer	6,967	19.0	+4.4
Majority			2,483	6.8	13.6
Turnout				75.0	-0.7
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+6.8

Election	Political result		Candidate		Party	Votes	%
General election, October 1931 Electorate 50,849 Turnout 63.2%		Liberal hold Majority 13,849 (43.0%)		James Armand Edmond de Rothschild DCM	Liberal	20,842	64.8
				John Alexander Whitehead	Agricultural	6,993	21.8
				Francis Joseph Knowles	Labour	4,302	13.4
General election, November 1935 Electorate 52,515 Turnout 66.0%		Liberal hold Majority 699 (2.0%)		James Armand Edmond de Rothschild DCM	Liberal	17,671	51.0
				William Francis Cuthbert Garthwaite	Conservative	16,972	49.0
General election, July 1945 Electorate 56,661 Turnout 67.8%		Conservative gain Majority 2,321 (6.1%)		Major Edward Alexander Henry Legge-Bourke	Conservative	15,592	40.6
				Lt.-Cmdr. Alfred Francis Colenso Gray, RNVR	Labour	13,271	34.5
				James Armand Edmond de Rothschild DCM	Liberal	9,564	24.9
General election, February 1950 Electorate 60,070 Turnout 79.6%		Conservative hold Majority 4,963 (10.4%)		Major Edward Alexander Henry Legge-Bourke	Conservative	21,528	45.0
				Lt.-Cmdr. Alfred Francis Colenso Gray, RNVR	Labour	16,565	34.6
				Thomas Grenville Jones	Liberal	9,733	20.4
General election, October 1951 Electorate 60,918 Turnout 75.9%		Conservative hold Majority 6,404 (13.8%)		Major Edward Alexander Henry Legge-Bourke	Conservative	26,319	56.9
				Lt.-Cmdr. Alfred Francis Colenso Gray, RNVR	Labour	19,915	43.1
General election, May 1955 Electorate 61,188 Turnout 70.7%		Conservative hold Majority 6,446 (14.8%)		Major Edward Alexander Henry Legge-Bourke	Conservative	24,862	57.4
				Lt.-Cmdr. Alfred Francis Colenso Gray, RNVR	Labour	18,416	42.6
General election, October 1959 Electorate 61,387 Turnout 74.7%		Conservative hold Majority 6,468 (14.0%)		Major Edward Alexander Henry Legge-Bourke	Conservative	26,173	57.0
				John Derek Page	Labour	19,705	43.0
General election, October 1964 Electorate 61,004 Turnout 73.8%		Conservative hold Majority 5,625 (12.4%)		Major Edward Alexander Henry Legge-Bourke	Conservative	25,317	56.2
				Cyril Shaw	Labour	19,692	43.8
General election, March 1966 Electorate 60,758 Turnout 75.9%		Conservative hold Majority 1,754 (3.8%)		Major Edward Alexander Henry Legge-Bourke	Conservative	21,320	46.2
				Graham Nurse	Labour	19,566	42.4
				Derek Malcolm Rigby	Liberal	5,250	11.4
General election, June 1970 Electorate 67,226 Turnout 71.9%		Conservative hold Majority 9,606 (19.8%)		Major Edward Alexander Henry Legge-Bourke	Conservative	28,972	59.9
				Rex Edgar O'Hare	Labour	19,366	40.1
By-election, 26 July 1973 Electorate 69,069 Turnout 65.8%		Liberal gain Majority 2,483 (6.8%)		Clement Raphael Freud	Liberal	17,390	38.3
				John Burdett Stevens	Conservative	15,920	35.0
				Barry A. Young	Labour	12,153	26.7
General election, February 1974 Electorate 67,913* Turnout 83.1%		Liberal gain Majority 8,347 (14.8%)		Clement Raphael Freud	Liberal	27,647	49.0
				John Burdett Stevens	Conservative	19,300	34.2
				Michael Brendon Ferris	Labour	9,478	16.8
General election, October 1974 Electorate 68,473 Turnout 77.1%		Liberal hold Majority 2,685 (5.0%)		Clement Raphael Freud	Liberal	22,040	41.7
				Dr Irving Thomas Stuttaford	Conservative	19,355	36.7
				Michael Brendon Ferris	Labour	11,420	21.6
General election, May 1979 Electorate 69,954 Turnout 80.8%		Liberal hold Majority 3,330 (5.9%)		Clement Raphael Freud	Liberal	26,397	46.7
				Dr Irving Thomas Stuttaford	Conservative	23,067	40.8
				Colin Harry Saunders	Labour	7,067	12.5

See also

• Parliamentary representation from Cambridgeshire
• Isle of Ely by-election, 1973
• List of former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies

Sources

• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1972)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (The Macmillan Press 1977)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1950-1973, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Research Services 1983)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1974-1983, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Research Services 1984)
• Social Geography of British Elections 1885-1910, by Henry Pelling (Macmillan 1967)
• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume III 1919-1945, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1979)
• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume IV 1945-1979, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1981)