Talk:List of United Kingdom MPs with the shortest service

Compton
I suspect Henry Compton, elected Dec 1905, could not have taken his seat, since Parliament was not in session - they only sat Feb-Aug in those days - and it seems that it was never summoned to be dissolved in Jan 1906. Can someone confirm this? RodCrosby (talk) 12:26, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Likewise Andrews RodCrosby (talk) 12:28, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Bell
suspect Bell may not have taken his seat before he died. RodCrosby (talk) 12:26, 23 September 2008 (UTC). Checked, did not take his seat RodCrosby (talk) 16:02, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Mathew
suspect Mathew may not have taken his seat before he died. RodCrosby (talk) 12:26, 23 September 2008 (UTC). Checked, did take his seat, and made a few interventions. No apparent maiden speech. RodCrosby (talk) 16:02, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Anderson
If anyone has Hansard between 10 Feb and 14 Feb 1919 could they check he never made a speech. Why did he resign? RodCrosby (talk) 12:31, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Reith
Did Reith make a maiden speech? RodCrosby (talk) 12:39, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

Mathias
Mathias appears never to have taken his seat. The election petition was issued almost immediately after the election. RodCrosby (talk) 12:39, 23 September 2008 (UTC) Checked, he took his seat, either on 1st or 2nd Feb 1911, but the Hansard for Jan 1911 doesn't list the names. Undue election announced by Speaker 10 Apr 1911 (talk) 17:33, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Frewen
Manor of Northstead 5 Jul 1911

Philipson
Philipson appears never to have taken his seat. RodCrosby (talk) 12:39, 23 September 2008 (UTC). Checked, did take his seat. RodCrosby (talk) 16:02, 24 September 2008 (UTC)


 * Omnibus comment - firstly, it's not been given much publicity but almost the whole of Hansard (minus a few volumes that the scanner had problems with) is now online and searchable. It's a temporary website at the moment but you'll find it here. Some of the coverage which is missing there is available in raw xml files at Hansard Archive where each file is a zip archive.


 * Yes, I linked the Millbank system as reference, but it appears incomplete at the moment, unable to find the taking of the Oath of Peter Law for example, or of others whose maiden speeches are reported. I'll have a look a the zip files though. RodCrosby (talk) 00:31, 24 September 2008 (UTC)


 * I recently completed a biography of Charles Beattie - the few facts known about him were intriguing and I wanted to find out more. In my view his effective service is actually 36 days - between taking his seat on 25 October 1955, and being told by the Attorney-General on 30 November 1955 that he was probably disqualified and should no longer attend.


 * Excellent article on Beattie, btw. How did you track down his date of death? I searched the Times Digital Archive numerous times but came up with nothing! I suppose we can debate Beattie, but it appears his disqualification only became final and legal on Feb 7, 1956. RodCrosby (talk) 00:31, 24 September 2008 (UTC)


 * A few comments on the others - the last sitting day of the 1900-06 Parliament was 10 August 1905 so anyone elected after then would not be able to take the oath. Sir John Reith was a Minister throughout his term so he may have answered questions (although I can't trace any). Sam Blacketer (talk) 23:44, 23 September 2008 (UTC)
 * OK, maybe Reith is in the zip files. RodCrosby (talk) 00:31, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Discussion with Sam Blacketer
Hi, I notice you've done some updates. Where are you getting these from? They appear to be for periods in which there are gaps in the list of Hansard zip files you mentioned above. Is there another source? RodCrosby (talk) 22:20, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

1910,1922,1923
There will also be a number of MPs who sat only in those Parliaments, each covering a period of less than 12 months. Do you have any good sources for those? I have Ian Dale's reprinted Times Guide for 1910, but have no obvious sources for 1922-3. I suggest we insert a link in the table to another page entitled "xx Members who only sat in the 1910 Parliament", etc. RodCrosby (talk) 22:20, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

Rough list, some may have sat elsewhere, before or after, but not obvious at first glance.

1910

 * William Augustus Adam, Woolwich
 * Gerald Archibald Arbuthnot, Burnley
 * Walter Annis Attenborough, Bedford
 * Robert Brassey, Banbury
 * Gerald Fitzgibbon Brunskill, Mid-Tyrone
 * Thomas Charles Pleydell Calley, Cricklade
 * Sir H Arthur Colefax, Manchester SW
 * Bryan Ricco Cooper, Dublin South
 * H. St. Maur was apparently elected for Exeter by 4 votes in Dec 1910, but an election court gave the seat to Henry Duke by 1 vote (check St. Maur)
 * Sir William Henry Dunn, Southwark W
 * William Foot Mitchell, Dartford
 * Harry Seymour Foster, Lowestoft
 * John Kenneth Foster, Coventry
 * Frederick Hindle (1848-1925), Darwen
 * John Arthur Jackson, Whitehaven
 * James Duncan Millar, St. Andrews Burghs
 * Max Muspratt, Liverpool Exchange
 * Douglas Proby, Saffron Walden
 * Samuel Forde Ridley, Rochester
 * Henry Twist, Wigan
 * Sir Charles Dillwyn-Venables-Llewellyn, Radnorshire
 * George Henry Verrall, Newmarket
 * Aneurin Williams, Plymouth

Dec 1910 retirees

 * Cecil Alfred Grenfell, Bodmin
 * Sir Thomas Barclay, Blackburn
 * Alfred du Cros, Bow and Bromley
 * Arthur Howard Heath, Leek
 * James Knott, Sunderland
 * Trebitsch Lincoln, Darlington
 * William Younger, Peebles and Selkirk

Others

 * Eugene O'Sullivan, East Kerry, elected Jan 1910, unseated on petition shortly afterwards

Sorting by date doesn't work
If you press the button to sort by date, it naively sorts alphabetically rather than looking at the actual dates. Similarly for some of the other columns. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Blitzer99 (talk • contribs) 13:36, 30 May 2011 (UTC)


 * I have now fixed the formatting, so that sorting by date should now work as expected. Andrew Gwilliam (talk) 02:52, 10 July 2011 (UTC).

List for 19th century UK MPs?
I wonder if anyone happens to be working on an equivalent list for short-served MPs of the UK Parliament who were sitting between 1801 (the inaugural year) and 1899? I can readily volunteer names that are known to me and I note there were three parliaments that lasted less than one year - the 3rd (1806-07), the 9th (1830-31) and the 27th (1885-86) that may have had members who served in no other parliament. There were a number of other MPs who were elected but died soon afterwards (notably Sir George Harrison at Edinburgh) and at least one who succeeded to a peerage that forced him to vacate to the Lords, the Earl of Cadogan who as Viscount Chelsea was MP for Bath barely a month. To that can be added those unseated by petition.Cloptonson (talk) 19:48, 31 July 2016 (UTC)
 * As we've discussed before, occurrences which are notable now (and in near living memory) are not (as) notable in centuries past. Please don't merge such items into this page, but feel free to start another, say covering 1801 to 1900. RodCrosby (talk) 14:16, 2 August 2016 (UTC)
 * I shall leave this page as it is, the consideration was already in my mind. I wanted to check if anyone was already working unbeknown to me on a page for the period I suggested. I was thinking more in terms of joining forces rather than be the sole creator, as I am inexperienced in creating pages from scratch.Cloptonson (talk) 20:33, 2 August 2016 (UTC)

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David Hardie by-election name change explanation
I have changed 1931 Glasgow Rutherglen by-election to 1931 Rutherglen by-election. To explain this, the former was a redirect to the latter which is the correct title of the article and a direct link it better I think. Equally it is wrong to speak about "Glasgow Rutherglen" at this time as Rutherglen was not one of the 15 Glasgow constituencies (divisions as they were called), but was a division of Lanarkshire. The burgh of Rutherglen and its surrounds that made up the constituency were not part of Glasgow at this time. Dunarc (talk) 19:41, 23 May 2021 (UTC)