Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire (UK Parliament constituency)

Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire was a parliamentary constituency in the Clackmannan area of Central Scotland. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire
Former county constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1983
Seats	One
Created from	Stirlingshire, Clackmannan & Kinross and Falkirk Burghs
Replaced by	Clackmannan, Falkirk East and Falkirk West

The constituency was created for the 1918 general election, and abolished for the 1983 general election, when it was replaced by the new Clackmannan constituency.

The constituency comprised two separate parts, north and south of Falkirk town centre, with part of the similarly split Stirling, Falkirk and Grangemouth constituency in between.

Boundaries

Following the Representation of the People Act 1948, the seat of Clackmannan and East Stirlingshire was described in 1950 as being composed of:

• The Burgh of Clackmannan
• Three wards of Stirlingshire, named at the time as Eastern No. 1, Eastern No. 2, and Eastern No. 3

This would continue until the seat's abolition in 1983.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Ralph Glyn	Unionist
	1922	MacNeill Weir	Labour
	1931	James Wellwood Johnston	Unionist
	1935	MacNeill Weir	Labour
	1939 by-election	Arthur Woodburn	Labour
	1970	Dick Douglas	Labour Co-operative
	Feb 1974	George Reid	SNP
	1979	Martin O'Neill	Labour
1983		constituency abolished: see Clackmannan

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

General election 1918: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Unionist	Ralph Glyn	6,771	38.5
	Co-operative Party	Henry May	5,753	32.8
	Liberal	William Chapple	5,040	28.7
Majority			1,018	5.7
Turnout			17,564	55.0
Registered electors			31,916
	Unionist win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	MacNeill Weir	10,312	42.0	N/A
	Liberal	Craigie Aitchison	7,379	30.0	+1.3
	Unionist	Ralph Glyn	6,888	28.0	−10.5
Majority			2,933	12.0	N/A
Turnout			24,579	77.9	+22.9
Registered electors			31,563
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing	+9.9

General election 1923: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	MacNeill Weir	10,492	51.1	+9.1
	Liberal	Craigie Aitchison	10,043	48.9	+18.9
Majority			449	2.2	−9.8
Turnout			20,535	64.2	−13.7
Registered electors			31,976
	Labour hold		Swing	−4.9

General election 1924: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	MacNeill Weir	13,032	52.6	+1.5
	Liberal	Edwin Donaldson	11,752	47.4	−1.5
Majority			1,280	5.2	+3.0
Turnout			24,784	77.0	+12.8
Registered electors			32,195
	Labour hold		Swing	+1.5

General election 1929: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	MacNeill Weir	17,667	53.2	+0.6
	Unionist	Harold Mitchell	8,778	26.4	New
	Liberal	Edwin Donaldson	6,760	20.4	−27.0
Majority			8,889	26.8	+21.6
Turnout			33,205	78.0	+1.0
Registered electors			42,567
	Labour hold		Swing	+13.8

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	James Wellwood Johnston	20,425	59.9	+33.5
	Labour	MacNeill Weir	13,669	40.1	−13.1
Majority			6,756	19.8	−7.0
Turnout			34,094	77.7	−0.3
	Unionist gain from Labour		Swing

General election 1935: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	MacNeill Weir	14,881	42.3	+2.2
	Unionist	James Wellwood Johnston	13,738	39.0	−20.9
	Liberal	George Honeyman	5,062	14.4	New
	Ind. Labour Party	David Gibson	1,513	4.3	N/A
Majority			1,143	3.3	N/A
Turnout			35,194	76.2	−1.5
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing

Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire by-election, 1939

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Woodburn	15,645	93.7	+51.4
	Pacifist	Andrew Stewart	1,060	6.4	New
Majority			14,585	87.3	+84.0
Turnout			16,705	35.4	−40.8
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

General election 1945: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Woodburn	24,622	62.9	+20.6
	Unionist	John Gilmour	14,522	37.1	−1.9
Majority			10,100	25.8	+22.5
Turnout			39,144	71.9	−4.3
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General election 1950: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Woodburn	22,980	56.5	−6.4
	Unionist	Spencer Douglas Loch	13,630	33.5	−3.6
	Liberal	Charles Hampton Johnston	4,078	10.0	New
Majority			9,350	23.0	−2.8
Turnout			40,688	83.4	+11.5
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1951: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Woodburn	25,231	58.7	+2.2
	Unionist	Spencer Douglas Loch	17,727	41.3	+7.8
Majority			7,504	17.4	−5.6
Turnout			42,958	85.7	+2.3
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1955: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Woodburn	23,588	58.7	0.0
	Unionist	Raymond Craigie Aitchison	7,009	41.3	0.0
Majority			9,350	17.4	0.0
Turnout			30,597	79.8	−5.9
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1959: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Woodburn	25,004	59.3	+0.6
	Unionist	Raymond Craigie Aitchison	17,132	40.7	−0.6
Majority			7,872	18.6	+1.2
Turnout			42,136	80.7	+0.9
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General election 1964: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Woodburn	23,927	57.2	−2.1
	Unionist	Angus MacDonald	12,815	30.6	−10.1
	SNP	Douglas Drysdale	5,106	12.2	New
Majority			11,112	26.6	+8.0
Turnout			41,848	79.8	−0.9
	Labour hold		Swing

General election 1966: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Arthur Woodburn	22,557	55.3	−1.9
	Conservative	Angus MacDonald	10,037	24.5	−6.1
	SNP	Douglas Drysdale	8,225	20.1	+7.9
Majority			12,520	30.8	+4.2
Turnout			40,819	77.5	−2.3
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General election 1970: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour Co-op	Dick Douglas	23,729	50.7	−4.6
	Conservative	James Fairlie	13,178	28.2	+3.7
	SNP	Ian Macdonald	7,243	15.5	−4.6
	Liberal	Robert E. Bell	2,640	5.6	New
Majority			10,551	22.5	−8.3
Turnout			46,790	75.6	−1.9
	Labour hold		Swing

General election February 1974: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	George Reid	22,289	43.5	+28.0
	Labour Co-op	Dick Douglas	18,679	36.4	−14.3
	Conservative	A.H. Lester	9,994	19.5	−8.7
	Communist	George Bolton	322	0.6	New
Majority			3,610	7.1	N/A
Turnout			51,284	82.4	+6.8
	SNP gain from Labour		Swing

General election October 1974: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	George Reid	25,998	50.8	+7.3
	Labour Co-op	Dick Douglas	18,657	36.4	0.0
	Conservative	TNA Begg	5,269	10.3	−9.2
	Liberal	D Shields	1,268	2.5	New
Majority			7,341	14.4	+7.3
Turnout			51,192	79.5	−2.9
	SNP hold		Swing

General election 1979: Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Martin O'Neill	22,780	41.9	+5.5
	SNP	George Reid	21,796	40.1	−10.7
	Conservative	T.N.A. Begg	9,778	18.0	+7.7
Majority			984	1.8	N/A
Turnout			54,354	81.7	+2.2
	Labour gain from SNP		Swing

References

1. "'Stirlingshire East and Clackmannan', Feb 1974 - May 1983". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
2. [1] Boundary Commission for Scotland
3. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 4)
4. Whitaker's Almanack, 1920
5. The Times, 17 November 1922
6. The Times, 8 December 1923
7. Oliver & Boyd's Edinburgh Almanack, 1927
8. The Times, 1 June 1929
9. Whitaker's Almanack, 1934
10. Whitaker's Almanack, 1939
11. Whitaker's Almanack, 1944
12. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, FWS Craig

Constituency map