Constitutional Yearbook
The Constitutional Year Book. A Treasury of Political Information was first published by the National Union in December 1885. Although Ramsden notes that its publication was suspended in 1917 for the duration of the war,1 there is no evidence of that in the numbering of the issues, that for 1930, for example being the Forty Fourth Issue. That for 1939 was the last. The intention was to meet the demand of Conservative speaker and writers and for politicians more generally for a cheap and handy reference book of political information and one which would contain facts and statistics of public interest. It was subsequently enlarged and improved and the statistical tables were subject to remodelling also. Each volume had a general index and a separate index to the statistical tables.
Amongst other information, the Year Book contained brief biographies of all current peers and MPs; and electoral information, including results for every constituency. The 1919 Year Book was the last to contain the results for the period 1885 to 1918. The results for the polling at the General Elections from 1918 to 1924 and for all by-elections up to 1929 will last be found in the 1930 Year Book, while elections from 1924 on are to be found in the 1939 Year Book.
1 J.A.Ramsden, ‘The Organisation of the Conservative and Unionist Party in Britain 1910-30’. Oxford D.Phil. 1974. p.223