St Austell (UK Parliament constituency)

St Austell
Former borough constituency for the House of Commons
1885–1918
Seats	One
Created from	East Cornwall and West Cornwall
Replaced by	Penryn and Falmouth, North Cornwall

St Austell was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of St Austell in Cornwall. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election, and abolished for the 1918 general election.

Boundaries

The Sessional Divisions of Powder East and South, and Ryder, and the civil parishes of Ladock and St Blazey.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1885	William Copeland Borlase	Liberal
	1887	William Alexander McArthur	Liberal
	1908	Thomas Agar-Robartes	Liberal
	1915	Sir Francis Layland-Barratt	Liberal
	1918	constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1880s

Borlase

General election 1885: St Austell

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Copeland Borlase	4,464	67.2
	Conservative	John Heywood Johnstone	2,183	32.8
Majority			2,281	34.4
Turnout			6,647	75.0
Registered electors			8,860
	Liberal win (new seat)

General election 1886: St Austell

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Copeland Borlase	Unopposed
	Liberal hold

Borlase's resignation caused a by-election.

McArthur

By-election 18 May 1887: St Austell

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Alexander McArthur	3,540	51.5	N/A
	Liberal Unionist	Edward Brydges Willyams	3,329	48.5	New
Majority			211	3.0	N/A
Turnout			6,869	77.3	N/A
Registered electors			8,883
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1890s

Westlake

General election 1892: St Austell

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Alexander McArthur	4,201	61.8	N/A
	Liberal Unionist	John Westlake	2,593	38.2	N/A
Majority			1,608	23.6	N/A
Turnout			6,794	75.4	N/A
Registered electors			9,005
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

McArthur was appointed a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, requiring a by-election.

By-election, 23 Aug 1892

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Alexander McArthur	Unopposed
	Liberal hold

General election 1895: St Austell

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Alexander McArthur	4,193	57.6	−4.2
	Liberal Unionist	Michael Williams	3,092	42.4	+4.2
Majority			1,101	15.2	−8.4
Turnout			7,285	79.1	+3.7
Registered electors			9,213
	Liberal hold		Swing	−4.2

Elections in the 1900s

General election 1900: St Austell

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Alexander McArthur	Unopposed
	Liberal hold

General election 1906: St Austell

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Alexander McArthur	5,667	69.3	N/A
	Liberal Unionist	Richard Garnett	2,516	30.7	New
Majority			3,151	38.6	N/A
Turnout			8,183	80.0	N/A
Registered electors			10,235
	Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

1908 St Austell by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Agar-Robartes	Unopposed
	Liberal hold

Elections in the 1910s

Agar-Robartes

General election January 1910: St Austell

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Agar-Robartes	6,225	66.5	−2.8
	Liberal Unionist	Francis Tyringham Higgins Bernard	3,138	33.5	+2.8
Majority			3,087	33.0	−5.6
Turnout			9,363	85.4	+5.4
Registered electors			10,968
	Liberal hold		Swing	−2.8

General election December 1910: St Austell

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Agar-Robartes	Unopposed
	Liberal hold

General Election 1914–15:

Layland-Barratt

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;

• Liberal: Thomas Agar-Robartes
• Unionist:

1915 St Austell by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Francis Layland-Barratt	Unopposed
	Liberal hold

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 1)