Queen's University of Belfast was a university constituency

University constituency

A university constituency is a constituency, used in elections to a legislature, that represents a university rather than a geographical area. University constituencies may involve plural voting, in which eligible voters are permitted to vote in both a university constituency and a geographical...

 represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Parliament

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

 from 1918

United Kingdom general election, 1918

The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...

 until 1950

United Kingdom general election, 1950

The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...

.

It returned one Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP), elected by the first-past-the-post

First-past-the-post

First-past-the-post voting refers to an election won by the candidate with the most votes. The winning potato candidate does not necessarily receive an absolute majority of all votes cast.-Overview:...

 voting system.

Boundaries

The constituency was not a physical area but was rather elected by the graduates of the Queen's University of Belfast.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918 United Kingdom general election, 1918 The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...	Sir William Whitla William Whitla Sir William Whitla was an Irish physician and politician.-Early life:Born at The Diamond, Monaghan, County Monaghan, Ireland, the fourth son of Robert Whitla, a woollen draper and pawnbroker, and his wife, Anne, daughter of Alexander Williams of Dublin...	Ulster Unionist Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
	1923 United Kingdom general election, 1923 -Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...	Thomas Sinclair Thomas Sinclair (politician) Thomas Sinclair PC was an Irish unionist politician.Sinclair studied at Queen's University, Belfast before working as a surgeon. He was elected to the Senate of Northern Ireland on its creation in 1921....	Ulster Unionist Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
	1940 by-election	Prof. Douglas Lloyd Savory Douglas Lloyd Savory Sir Douglas Lloyd Savory was a professor of French and a member of the parliament of the United Kingdom.He was born at Palgrave in Suffolk and educated at Marlborough College and St John's College, Oxford...	Ulster Unionist Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...
	1950 United Kingdom general election, 1950 The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...	constituency abolished

Politics and History of the constituency

University constituencies had existed in the United Kingdom Parliament and its predecessors since 1603 and in 1918 Queen's was enfranchised as such. When the Parliament of Northern Ireland was established, the same franchise was preserved - see Queen's University of Belfast (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)

Queen's University of Belfast (Northern Ireland Parliament constituency)

Queen's University of Belfast was a university constituency of the Parliament of Northern Ireland from 1921 until 1969. It returned four MPs, using the single transferable vote method of proportional representation...

.

As with most other Northern Ireland seats in this period, the electorate was heavily inclined towards the Ulster Unionists, with no contests for the Westminster seat taking place at all in the interwar years.

In the late 1940s legislation was passed to abolish the university constituencies at Westminster.

Election results