Mid Kent (historic UK Parliament constituency)

Mid Kent was a parliamentary constituency in the county of Kent, which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Mid Kent
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1868–1885
Number of members	Two
Replaced by	Medway Ashford Tunbridge
Created from	West Kent

It was created for the 1868 general election, and abolished for the 1885 general election, when the three two-member constituencies (East Kent, Mid Kent and West Kent) were replaced by several new single-member constituencies: Ashford, Dartford, Faversham, Isle of Thanet, Medway, St Augustines, Sevenoaks and Tunbridge.

A later single-member constituency called Mid Kent existed from 1983 to 1997.

Boundaries

1868-1885: The Lathe of Aylesford, and the Lower Division of the Lathe of Scray.[1]

Members of Parliament

Election	1st Member		1st Party	2nd Member		2nd Party
1868		William Hart Dyke	Conservative		William Amherst	Conservative
1880					Sir Edmund Filmer, Bt	Conservative
1884 by-election					John Gathorne-Hardy	Conservative
1885	constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1860s

General election 1868: Mid Kent[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Hart Dyke	3,251	26.6	N/A
	Conservative	William Amherst	3,248	26.5	N/A
	Liberal	John William Nicholas Hervey	2,872	23.5	N/A
	Liberal	Sir Francis Head, 2nd Baronet	2,868	23.4	N/A
Majority			376	3.1	N/A
Turnout			6,120 (est)	70.2 (est)	N/A
Registered electors			8,723
	Conservative win (new seat)
	Conservative win (new seat)

Elections in the 1870s

General election 1874: Mid Kent[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Hart Dyke	3,710	36.3	+9.7
	Conservative	William Amherst	3,542	34.7	+8.2
	Liberal	David Salomons	2,956	29.0	−17.9
Majority			586	5.7	+2.6
Turnout			6,582 (est)	73.9 (est)	+3.7
Registered electors			8,905
	Conservative hold		Swing	+9.3
	Conservative hold		Swing	+8.6

Elections in the 1880s

General election 1880: Mid Kent[2][3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Hart Dyke	4,056	28.6	−7.7
	Conservative	Edmund Filmer	3,783	26.7	−8.0
	Liberal	Edward Cazalet	3,318	23.4	+8.9
	Liberal	Howard Elphinstone	3,020	21.3	+6.8
Majority			465	3.3	−2.4
Turnout			7,089 (est)	80.9 (est)	+7.0
Registered electors			8,763
	Conservative hold		Swing	−8.3
	Conservative hold		Swing	−7.4

Filmer's resignation caused a by-election.

By-election, 15 May 1884: Mid Kent[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Gathorne-Hardy	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

Dyke's appointment as Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland required a by-election.

By-election, 2 Jul 1885: Mid Kent[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	William Hart Dyke	Unopposed
	Conservative hold

References

1. "Representation of the People Act 1867" (PDF). Retrieved 27 July 2017.
2. Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1832-1885 (e-book) |format= requires |url= (help) (1st ed.). London: Macmillan Press. p. 405. ISBN 978-1-349-02349-3.
3. "Mid Kent Election". The Daily News. 30 March 1880. p. 4. Retrieved 20 December 2017 – via British Newspaper Archive.

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "K" (part 1)
• Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 405. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.