East Dorset (UK Parliament constituency)

East Dorset
Former County constituency
for the House of Commons
1885 (1885)–1950 (1950)
Number of members	One

East Dorset is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was formally known as the Eastern Division of Dorset. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was represented by one Knight of the Shire.

Boundaries

Between 1832 and 1885 the historic county of Dorset, in south western England, was an undivided three member county constituency - see the article on the Dorset constituency. In 1885 the county was divided for Parliamentary purposes between this constituency, North Dorset, South Dorset and West Dorset (there were no borough constituencies in Dorset in the redistribution of 1885). Each of these divisions comprised roughly a quarter of the area of the county and returned one member of Parliament.

In 1918 the four Dorset divisions were retained, but the boundaries were altered. This constituency was reduced in area to about half its former size, with the northern part of the old East division being transferred to North Dorset and the southern section to South Dorset.

The then local authorities comprising East Dorset in 1918 were the Municipal Borough of Poole, the Urban District of Wimborne Minster, the Rural District of Poole and part of the Rural District of Wimborne and Cranborne.

In the redistribution which took effect in the United Kingdom general election, 1950 the East county division was abolished. A new borough constituency of Poole was created. Wimborne Minster and the part of the Rural District of Wimborne and Cranborne previously in the abolished constituency, were transferred to North Dorset.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party	Notes
	1885	Pascoe Glyn	Liberal	Younger son of Lord Wolverton
	1886	George Hawkesworth Bond	Conservative	Died in 1891
	1891 by-election	Hon. Humphrey Napier Sturt	Conservative	Succeeded as 2nd Baron Alington in 1904
	1904 by-election	Charles Henry Lyell	Liberal	MP for Edinburgh South from April 1910
	January 1910	Hon. Frederick Edward Guest	Liberal	Unseated on petition in May 1910
	June 1910	Hon. Christian Henry Charles Guest	Liberal	MP for Pembroke & Haverfordwest from Dec 1910
	December 1910	Rt Hon. Frederick Edward Guest	Liberal	Liberal Chief Whip 1917–1921, Secretary of State for Air 1921–1922
	1918		Coalition Liberal
	1922	Gordon Ralph Hall Caine	Independent Conservative	Took Conservative Whip January 1923
	1923		Conservative
	1929	Alec Ewart Glassey	Liberal
	1931	Gordon Ralph Hall Caine	Conservative
	1945	Mervyn James Wheatley	Conservative
	1950	constituency abolished

Elections

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See also

• List of former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 2)
• Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Reference Publications 1972)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1977)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press 1974)
• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Macmillan Press, revised edition 1977)
• Who's Who of British Members of Parliament, Volume II 1886-1918, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (Harvester Press 1978)
• 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)