County Kent Created from Kent Number of members 1 | Major settlements Chatham Major settlement Chatham | |
Replaced by Kent, Rochester and Chatham | ||
Chatham was a parliamentary constituency in Kent which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was created for the 1832 general election, when the borough of Chatham was enfranchised under the Reform Act 1832.
Contents
It was abolished for the 1950 general election, when it was largely replaced by the new Rochester and Chatham constituency. This then became Medway in 1983. When the boroughs of Rochester upon Medway and Gillingham merged to form the larger unitary Borough of Medway in 1998, the Parliamentary constituency of Medway only covered part of the new borough, so for the next election it will be renamed Rochester and Strood.
Boundaries
1918-1950: The Municipal Borough of Rochester except part of St Peter's ward, and the Municipal Borough of Chatham wards of Luton and St John.
Elections in the 1930s
The sitting MP Sydney Frank Markham sought re-election as a National Labour candidate. However, the Conservatives refused to withdraw in his favour. As a result, he was forced to withdraw. Communist candidate Walter Hannington was also adopted but subsequently withdrew.