Caithness and Sutherland (UK Parliament constituency)

Categories: United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies (historic)

Caithness and Sutherland County constituency
Creation	1918
Abolition	1997
Type	House of Commons

Caithness and Sutherland was a constituency the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1997. It elected one Member of Parliament| (MP) by the first past the post system of election.

The constituency was created by merging together the constituencies of Caithness and Sutherland and the Dornoch and Wick components of the Northern Burghs constituency. Thus it represented the county of Caithness and the county of Sutherland.

In 1997 the constituency was superseded by the creation of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, which merged together Caithness and Sutherland and an Easter Ross area of Ross, Cromarty and Skye.

1918 constituency reform

The creation of Caithness and Sutherland as a single constituency was a part of a package of reform affecting also many other parts of the United Kingdom. The reform was the first since the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885, and its main aim was to make constituencies more equal in terms of the sizes of their electorates.

Members of Parliament

Period	Member of Parliament	Party
1918 to 1922	Sir Robert Leicester Harmsworth	Liberal, and pro Lloyd George Coalition until 1922 In the 1922 general election his position was vague with respect to the Lloyd George-Asquith split in the Liberal Party, and he lost his seat to pro Lloyd George candidate Archibald Sinclair
1922 to 1945	Archibald Sinclair (Became 1st Viscount Thurso in 1952	Liberal, and pro Lloyd George ("National Liberal") in the 1922 general election Became more simply Liberal as the Lloyd George-Asquith split became historic Liberal Party leader 1935 to 1945
1945 to 1950	Eric Leslie Gandar Dower	Conservative
1950 to 1964	Sir David Robertson	Elected as a Conservative in 1950, 1951 and 1955, and as independent in 1959.
1964 to 1966	George Y Mackie (Later Baron Mackie of Benshie)	Liberal
1966 to 1997	Robert Adam Ross Maclennan	First elected as a Labour MP Became a Social Democrat in 1981 Elected under the SDP-Liberal Alliance banner in 1983 and 1987 Became a Liberal Democrat in 1988

At the time of the 1918 general election Sir Robert Harmsworth had been, immediately before the election, MP for the constituency of Caithness.

In the general election of 1997 Robert Maclennan was elected MP for the then new constituency of Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross.

Election results

Election	Candidates	Party	Votes
General election 1918	Sir Robert Leicester Harmsworth F J Robertson	Coalition Liberal (pro Lloyd George) Independent Coalition Liberal	6769 4036
General election 1922	Archibald Sinclair Sir Robert Leicester Harmsworth	National Liberal (pro Lloyd George) Liberal	7715 5803
General election 1923	Archibald Sinclair	Liberal	Unopposed
General election 1924	Archibald Sinclair	Liberal	Unopposed
General election 1929	Sir Archibald Sinclair J A L Duncan C G Oman	Liberal Conservative Labour	13462 3041 1711
General election 1931	Sir Archibald Sinclair	Liberal	Unopposed
General election 1935	Sir Archibald Sinclair William Bruce	Liberal National Government	12071 4621
General election 1945	Eric Lelsie Gander Dower Robert MacInnes Archibald Sinclair	Conservative Labour Liberal	5564 5558 5503
General election 1950	David Robertson Archibald Sinclair Alasdair MacArthur	Conservative Liberal Labour	6969 6700 5676
General election 1951	David Robertson Richard Murray Peter J M McEwan	Conservative Labour Liberal	9814 6799 3299
General election 1955	Sir David Robertson Hugh F Sutherland John S Mowat	Conservative Labour Liberal	10453 5364 2674
General election 1959	Sir David Robertson Ronald King Murray	Independent Labour	12163 6438
General election 1964	George Y Mackie John B Urquart Patrick Maitland John M Young	Liberal Labour Conservative Independent Unionist	7894 6619 4550 2795
General election 1966	Robert Adam Ross Maclennan George Y Mackie Hamish M Watt	Labour Liberal Conservative	8308 8244 4662
General election 1970	Robert Adam Ross Maclennan George Y Mackie John M Young Donald G Barr	Labour Liberal Conservative Scottish Nationalist	8768 6063 5334 3690
General election February 1974	Robert Adam Ross Maclennan Michael R Burnett G Susan Bell Eric Alexander Sutherland	Labour Liberal Conservative Scottish Nationalist	8574 6222 5104 3814
General election October 1974	Robert Adam Ross Maclennan Eric Alexander Sutherland Michael R Burnett Albert McQuarrie	Labour Scottish Nationalist Liberal Conservative	7491 5381 4949 4240
General election 1979	Robert Adam Ross Maclennan Richard H Wardrop Robin Shaw	Labour Conservative Scottish Nationalist	9613 7074 6487
General election 1983	Robert Adam Ross Maclennan Alistair Scouller Danny Carrigan Jim Ingram	SDP-Liberal Alliance Conservative Labour Scottish Nationalist	12119 5276 3325 2568
General election 1987	Robert Adam Ross Maclennan R Hamilton A Byron Ker MacGregor W A Mowat B Planterose	SDP-Liberal Alliance Conservative Labour Scottish Nationalist Independent Liberal Green	12338 3844 3437 2371 686 333
General election 1992	Robert Adam Ross Maclennan George Bruce Kerr MacGregor Michael Coyne	Liberal Democrat Conservative Scottish Nationalist Labour	10032 4667 4049 3483