Penrith and Cockermouth (UK Parliament constituency)

Penrith and Cockermouth was a parliamentary constituency centred on the towns of Penrith and Cockermouth in Cumberland, England. It was alternatively known as Mid Cumberland. 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.

Penrith and Cockermouth
Former county constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Seats	one
Created from	Cockermouth and Penrith
Replaced by	Penrith and The Border and Workington

History

The constituency was created for the 1918 general election, and abolished for the 1950 general election.

Boundaries

The Urban Districts of Cockermouth, Keswick, and Penrith, the Rural Districts of Alston with Garrigill, and Penrith, and part of the Rural District of Cockermouth.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	James Lowther	Speaker
	1921	Cecil Lowther	Unionist
	1922	Levi Collison	Liberal
	1923	Arthur Dixey	Unionist
	1935	Alan Dower	Conservative
1950		constituency abolished: see Penrith and The Border

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

General election 1918: Penrith & Cockermouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Speaker	James Lowther	Unopposed
	Speaker win (new seat)

Lowther stood as a Unionist candidate, and received the Coalition Coupon

Elections in the 1920s

1921 Penrith and Cockermouth by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Cecil Lowther	7,678	50.1	N/A
	Liberal	Levi Collison	7,647	49.9	N/A
Majority			31	0.2	N/A
Turnout			15,325	74.0	N/A
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

General election 1922: Penrith and Cockermouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Levi Collison	9,114	51.1	N/A
	Unionist	Cecil Lowther	8,736	48.9	N/A
Majority			378	2.2	N/A
Turnout			17,850	83.0	N/A
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	N/A

General election 1923: Penrith and Cockermouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Arthur Dixey	9,205	50.9	+2.0
	Liberal	Levi Collison	8,878	49.1	−2.0
Majority			327	1.8	4.0
Turnout			18,083	83.2	+0.2
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	+2.0

General election 1924: Penrith and Cockermouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Arthur Dixey	11,431	67.9	+17.0
	Labour	Fred Tait	5,404	32.1	New
Majority			6,027	35.8	+34.0
Turnout			16,835	75.9	+7.3
	Unionist hold		Swing

General election 1929: Penrith and Cockermouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Arthur Dixey	10,595	45.2	−22.7
	Liberal	Arthur Holgate	8,750	37.4	New
	Labour	Archibald Dodd	4,073	17.4	−14.7
Majority			1,845	7.8	−28.0
Turnout			23,418	85.3	+9.4
	Unionist hold		Swing

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Penrith & Cockermouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Arthur Dixey	12,904	53.1	+7.9
	Liberal	Arthur Holgate	11,412	46.9	+9.5
Majority			1,492	6.2	−1.6
Turnout			24,316	86.6	+1.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election 1935: Penrith & Cockermouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alan Dower	14,496	64.3	+10.2
	Labour	Harold Smith	8,036	35.7	New
Majority			6,460	28.6	+22.4
Turnout			22,532	78.4	−8.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1939–40:

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the Autumn of 1939, the following candidates had been selected;

• Conservative: Alan Dower
• Liberal: William Jackson
• Labour: Harold Smith

Elections in the 1940s

General election 1945: Penrith & Cockermouth

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alan Dower	9,198	37.8	−26.5
	Liberal	Noel Francis Newsome	6,579	27.0	New
	Labour	Leonard Foster Browne	6,350	26.1	−9.6
	National	Tom Mitchell	2,204	9.1	New
Majority			2,619	10.8	−17.8
Turnout			24,331	79.3	+0.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

Craig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.

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