UK absent voter lists are list which were drawn up between 1918 and 1925 and again in 1939 to allow British soldiers who were absent from Britain to vote in elections. This move was just one of the provisions contained in the Representation of the People Act 1918, passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in early 1918 and given the royal seal on the 6th of February 1918. The absent voter lists were drawn up for several elections that were held in the late 1910s and early 1920s, specifically 1918, 1922, 1923 and 1924. The lists drawn up in 1939 were never used for an election as no election would be held in Britain between November 1935 and July 1945 owing to the Second World War. The lists are a useful genealogical and family history source for anyone looking to find out information about a person or relative who served in the British armed forces towards the end of the First World War and the years after it, or at the beginning of the Second World War.[1]
UK absent voter lists chronology of events
Britain’s parliament is often referred to as the ‘mother parliament’ or ‘mother of parliaments’, a term which was coined in the middle of the nineteenth century to argue that the concept of representative democracy emerged first in Europe in England/Britain and then was exported to other countries in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, like the United States, Australia, South Africa, Canada and New Zealand. Even within Europe, several countries took their cues in developing constitutional monarchies from the British example. There is some truth to this, in so far as England/Britain gradually emerged as a constitutional monarchy through a series of political clashes between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries, beginning with the issuance of the Magna Carta in 1215 and ending with the Glorious Revolution of 1688. At the end of these, the English parliament was established as the greater political power in England, more powerful than the monarchy. Thus was born constitutional democracy in early modern Europe.[2]
There is, though, a fatal flaw in this argument, as it was put forward by Victorian analysts, specifically the fact that the franchise was only very limited in seventeenth and eighteenth-century Britain, with the vote restricted to men of a certain high income or landed wealth. It was only through a series of Representation of the People Acts in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that Britain moved from being what was effectively an oligarchy to a truly representative democracy. One of the most important was the Representation of the People Act 1918. This gave women over 30 years of age the vote for the first time and also enfranchised millions of poorer British men. Another element of the act was that it provided for men and women who were involved in the British war effort during the First World War to be allowed vote too, even if they were overseas.[3]
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By 1918 the British army was nearly four million in size. Many of those involved were from the empire, but a large proportion were from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Representation of the People Act 1918 provided that even if they were overseas, these men (and women serving as medical staff and in other capacities in France and elsewhere) should be allowed to cast their vote from abroad. This stipulation was included because when the Act was passed early in 1918 a UK election had not been held since December 1910, the war having delayed the election that under normal circumstances would have been constitutionally mandated in early 1916. Thus, in the course of 1918 absent voter lists were drawn up so that British servicemen and women in France and elsewhere could vote in the election which was eventually held in December 1918.[4]
There were further absent voter lists compiled in the years that followed. This was for a very simple reason. The end of the First World War did not bring about the end of the fighting and wars, revolutions and civil wars continued across Europe in places like Russia, Germany, Ireland and Turkey down to 1923. Britain became involved in many of these conflicts and hundreds of thousands of troops remained in arms on the continent. Thus, absent voter lists were drawn up down to 1925 of men and women in service who would eventually vote in the November 1922, December 1923 and October 1924 elections. Absent voter lists were also compiled in 1939 towards the start of the Second World War, though in the end no election would be held in Britain between November 1935 and July 1945.[5]
Where to find UK absent voter lists
The UK absent voter lists are not held centrally in the National Archives of the United Kingdom at Kew in London. Instead the lists of individuals from specific shires are held in the local county records’ office in England, Wales or Scotland and at the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland in the case of the six counties of Northern Ireland. Digital copies have been produced and are available online in some instances, while copies are also held by the British Library in London.[6]
What can be found in the UK absent voter lists
The information contained in the UK absent voter lists is fairly basic to some extent, though useful for the genealogist and family historian. They contain a number of key points of information on individuals listed in them, namely their name, home address in Britain or Ireland, service number and some other details of the regiment or unit with which they were serving. This information allows researchers to trace elements of the wartime record of British servicemen and women. They can prove especially useful in instances where a person might have died abroad without leaving a record of where they were or when they died. The absent voter lists makes it possible to trace if someone was still alive and where they were when the lists were compiled.[7]
Explore more about the UK absent voter lists
- United Kingdom, War Memorials, 1914-1949 records collection on MyHeritage
- United Kingdom, British Army and Air Force Nominal Roll, 1920 records collection on MyHeritage
- Commonwealth War Graves, 1914-1921, 1939-1947 records collection on MyHeritage
References
- ↑ P. O. Ray, ‘Absent-voting Laws’, in The American Political Science Review, Vol. 18, No. 2 (May, 1924), pp. 321–325.
- ↑ https://www.history.com/topics/european-history/british-parliament
- ↑ Neal Blewett, ‘The Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918’, in Past & Present, No. 32 (December, 1965), pp. 27–56.
- ↑ Barry McGill, ‘Lloyd George’s Timing of the 1918 Election’, in Journal of British Studies, Vol. 14, No. 1 (November, 1974), pp. 109–124.
- ↑ https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/continuing-conflict-europe-after-the-first-world-war
- ↑ https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/soldiers/how-to-research-a-soldier/finding-soldiers-through-the-1918-absent-voters-lists/
- ↑ https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/british-army-soldiers-in-service-after-1918/