Stowmarket was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Stowmarket in Suffolk. 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 voting system.
History The North-Western or Stowmarket Division was one of five single-member county divisions of the Parliamentary County of Suffolk created by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 to replace the existing two 2-member divisions for the 1885 general election. It was formed from parts of the Western Division of Suffolk and included the towns of Stowmarket and Newmarket. It was abolished by the Representation of the People Act 1918 when the majority of the Division was absorbed into the new Bury St Edmunds Division of West Suffolk, with a small area in the east, including Stowmarket itself, transferred to the Eye Division of East Suffolk.
Boundaries
The Municipal Borough of Bury St Edmunds; The Sessional Divisions of Blackbourn, Lackford, and Stowmarket; Parts of the Sessional Divisions of Newmarket, Thedwestry, and Thingoe; and The part of the Municipal Borough of Thetford in the county of Suffolk.
As Bury St Edmunds formed a separate Parliamentary Borough, only non-resident freeholders of the Borough were entitled to vote in this constituency.
Members of Parliament
ElectionMemberParty 1885 Felix Cobbold Liberal 1886 Edward Greene Conservative 1891 by-election Sydney Stern Liberal 1895 Ian Malcolm Conservative 1906 George Hardy Liberal Jan. 1910 Frank Goldsmith Conservative1918 constituency abolished
Elections Elections in the 1880s
Elections in the 1890s Greene's death caused a by-election.
Elections in the 1900s
Elections in the 1910s
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 July 1914, the following candidates had been selected; Unionist: Frank Goldsmith Liberal: E. R. HollondBury Free Press 21 Mar 1914
References