The 1946 Combined Scottish Universities by-election was a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

held from 22 to 27 November 1946 for the Combined Scottish Universities, a

university constituency A university constituency is a constituency, used in elections to a legislature, that represents the members of one or more universities rather than residents of a geographical area. These may or may not involve plural voting, in which voters ar ...

of the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

. It was the last election for a university constituency of the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative supremac ...

; the Combined Scottish Universities was abolished along with the other university seats for the 1950 general election.

Vacancy

The seat had become vacant on 16 October 1946 when the

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) Sir John Boyd Orr had

resigned Resignation is the formal act of leaving or quitting one's office or position. A resignation can occur when a person holding a position gained by election or appointment steps down, but leaving a position upon the expiration of a term, or choos ...

by the procedural device of accepting the post of

Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds The Chiltern Hundreds is an ancient administrative area in Buckinghamshire, England, composed of three "hundred (county division), hundreds" and lying partially within the Chiltern Hills. "Taking the Chiltern Hundreds" refers to one of the legal ...

, a notional 'office of profit under the crown' which is used as a procedural device to enable MPs to resign from the Commons. After his resignation, Boyd took up the position of Director-General of the

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. He had held the seat he was first elected at a by-election in 1945.

Candidates

Five candidates contested the by-election, none of whom had stood in 1945. The Unionist candidate was Walter Elliot, who had been MP for Glasgow Kelvingrove for more than 20 years, until his narrow defeat at the 1945 general election. He had been

Secretary of State for Scotland The secretary of state for Scotland ( gd, Rùnaire Stàite na h-Alba; sco, Secretar o State fir Scotland), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the Unit ...

from 1936 to 1938. The Labour Party candidate was the philosopher and broadcaster

C. E. M. Joad Cyril Edwin Mitchinson Joad (12 August 1891 – 9 April 1953) was an English philosopher and broadcasting personality. He appeared on ''The Brains Trust'', a BBC Radio wartime discussion programme. He popularised philosophy and became a celebri ...

. The

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fielded J. M. Bannerman, who had contested

Argyll Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

in 1945, and the

National Liberal National liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal policies and issues with elements of nationalism. Historically, national liberalism has also been used in the same meaning as conservative liberalism (right-liberalism). A seri ...

s nominated Dr R. S. Stevenson, who had stood in West Fife in 1945. The fifth candidate was J. G. Jameson, a member of the

Federal Union A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a political union, union of partially Federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central #Federal governments, federal gover ...

who stood as an advocate of the policies of the Federal Union, although the union did not endorse his candidacy.

Result

The result was a clear victory for the Unionist candidate, Walter Elliot, who won over 68% of the votes, and a majority of more than 50% over the second-placed Labour candidate. Elliot held the seat until the university constituencies were abolished for the 1950 general election.

Votes

References

Sources