Electoral Register accuracy question

[Brian87]

I have my grandmother's death certificate showing date of death as being 12 January 1945. However she is still showing as living at the same address in the Electoral Register for the West Riding of Yorkshire - Parliamentary County of York with the qualifying date of 30 June 1946 and a date, presumably of publication of 15th October 1946. As this is at least 18 months since the death of the subject, my query is how accurate are the electoral registers as a source of information, particularly in the assumption of dates?

Thank you in advance

[Andy J2022]

I suspect that the answer is that it was just a clerical error, in the sense that no-one cancelled a pre-existing registration for your grandmother.

The wartime arrangements for maintaining the registers of voters (even though there were no actual parliamentary elections prior to the July 1945 general election) were quite complicated and were governed by lots of temporary legislation. Although I can't find an extant copy of it, it appears that the Parliamentary Electors (War-Time Regulations) Act 1943 required that the registers of voters were to be compiled based on the 1939 National Register (the same one that was used for National Identity Cards etc and that we as family historians use today). The Representation of the People Act 1945 set out that the timetable for compiling the registers was to revert to the pre-war May and October half-yearly qualifying dates, but this system was only intended to come into force once the 1939 National Registration Act had been repealed. I might add, the ROPA 1945 is exceptionally difficult to follow.

Add to that the general disruption and displacement of people due to the bombing and civilian war service, and it is no wonder that the registers may have been somewhat out of date. The main aim of holding the 1945 election was to return the country to a proper democratic basis as soon as possible, and of the resulting Labour landslide victory is seen as evidence of the popular desire to return to normality. It wasn't until the 1948 ROPA that the whole system was given a thorough overhaul.

[hanes teulu]

Snipped from Shrewsbury Chronicle, 28 Jun 1946

Was your "rellie" on the National Register at 30 Jun?

[Brian87]

Greatly appreciated Andy. So I'm assuming that any electoral registers either before the war or after 1948 can be presumed to be reasonably accurate?

Brian

[Brian87]

hanes, yes she was and thanks for the press cutting

Brian

[hanes teulu]

Edinburgh Evening News, 16 Aug 1946

[Brian87]

hanes, again thanks.

Brian

[MollyC]

I have come across a case in the mid-1950s where a house was left empty but the electoral register remained "as before" for 2 or 3 years until someone returned the form stating it was empty.  It was one of a pair of semis both bought by the same person, who lived in one and used the other to store papers from a business which had recently been sold.  The only inhabitant was a guard dog named Moss!

[Brian87]

Interesting Molly. So the moral here is that if the use of a particular register was to be pivotal in one's research results then corroborating evidence should be sought.  Note to self.

Thanks
Brian