Dudley was a

parliamentary constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other poli ...

centred on the town of

Dudley Dudley is a large market town and administrative centre in the county of West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically an exclave of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

(now in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

). It returned one

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) to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom 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 suprema ...

, elected by the

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

system.

History

The borough of Dudley returned two members to Parliament in 1294, Benedict Andrew and Ralph Clerk de Duddlegh, but not to any subsequent one. The constituency was created by the

Reform Act 1832 The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament, Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major chan ...

for the 1832 general election. It was abolished for the February 1974 general election, when it was replaced by the new Dudley East and Dudley West constituencies, which expanded beyond the town's historic boundaries to include

Coseley Coseley ( ) is a village in the north of the Dudley Metropolitan Borough, in the English West Midlands. Part of the Black Country, it is situated approximately north of Dudley itself, on the border with Wolverhampton. Though it is a part of ...

and part of

Sedgley Sedgley is a town in the north of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, Sedgley is on the A459 road between Wolverhampt ...

in Dudley East (previously in the old Bilston constituency), as well as

Kingswinford Kingswinford is a town of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the English West Midlands, situated west-southwest of central Dudley. In 2011 the area had a population of 25,191, down from 25,808 at the 2001 Census. The current economic focus ...

Brierley Hill Brierley Hill is a town and electoral ward in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, West Midlands, England, 2.5 miles south of Dudley and 2 miles north of Stourbridge. Part of the Black Country and in a heavily industrialised area, it has a pop ...

, and the remainder of

in Dudley West. All of these areas had been incorporated into the Dudley borough in 1966.

Boundaries

1918–1950: The County Borough of Dudley, and the parish of Dudley Castle Hill. 1950–1974: The County Borough of Dudley, and the Borough of Stourbridge.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 1830s

Campbell was appointed as

Attorney General for England and Wales His Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales is one of the law officers of the Crown and the principal legal adviser to sovereign and Government in affairs pertaining to England and Wales. The attorney general maintains the Attorney ...

, requiring a by-election.

Elections in the 1840s

Hawkes resigned by accepting the office of Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1850s

Benbow's death caused a by-election.

Elections in the 1860s

Elections in the 1870s

The election was declared void on petition, causing a by-election.

Elections in the 1880s

Elections in the 1890s

Elections in the 1900s

Elections in the 1910s

Arthur Griffith-Boscawen Westminster1899

General Election 1914–15: 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 the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected; *Unionist: Arthur Griffith-Boscawen *Liberal: Gilbert Beyfus

Elections in the 1920s

Elections in the 1930s

Elections in the 1940s

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:

Dudley Joel Dudley Jack Barnato Joel (26 April 1904 – 28 May 1941) was a British businessman and Conservative Party politician. Part of the wealthy and prominent Joel family, he was the son of businessman Solomon Barnato Joel and his wife Ellen (Nellie) ...

*Labour: Leonard FreedmanReport of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939

Elections in the 1950s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1970s

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dudley (Uk Parliament Constituency) Politics of Dudley Parliamentary constituencies in the West Midlands (county) (historic) Parliamentary constituencies in Worcestershire (historic) Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1832 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1974