The Buckingham by-election of 1943 was a parliamentary by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

 held in England on 4 August 1943 for the House of Commons constituency

United Kingdom constituencies

In the United Kingdom , each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one or more members to a parliament or assembly.Within the United Kingdom there are now five bodies with members elected by constituencies:...

 of Buckingham

Buckingham (UK Parliament constituency)

Buckingham is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...

 in Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire

Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....

.

The by-election was held to fill the vacancy caused when the town's 45-year-old Conservative Party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 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) Brigadier John Whiteley

John Whiteley (politician)

Brigadier John Percival Whiteley OBE was a British Army officer and a Conservative Party politician.Whiteley was commissioned into the Royal Artillery during the First World War, ending the war as a Lieutenant...

 was killed in a plane crash in Gibraltar, along with the Conservative MP Victor Cazalet

Victor Cazalet

Colonel Victor Alexander Cazalet MC was a British Conservative Party Member of Parliament .Cazalet was commissioned into the Queen's Own West Kent Yeomanry in 1915 and reached the rank of Captain, winning the Military Cross in 1917...

 and General Sikorksi, the leader of the Polish government-in-exile. Whiteley had held the seat since a by-election in 1937

Buckingham by-election, 1937

The Buckingham by-election of 1937 was a by-election held on 11 June 1937 for the British House of Commons constituency of Buckingham in Buckinghamshire....

.

Candidates

The Conservative Party nominated as its candidate, Lionel Berry

Lionel Berry, 2nd Viscount Kemsley

Lionel Berry, 2nd Viscount Kemsley was a British Conservative politician, peer and newspaper editor.Berry was born in Hendon...

, the deputy chairman of Kemsley Newspapers Ltd (owner of The Sunday Times

The Sunday Times (UK)

The Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...

and the Daily Record

Daily Record (Scotland)

The Daily Record is a Scottish tabloid newspaper based in Glasgow. It had been the best-selling daily paper in Scotland for many years with a paid circulation in August 2011 of 307,794 . It is now outsold by its arch-rival the Scottish Sun which in September 2010 had a circulation of 339,586 in...

), and eldest son of the company's proprietor, Viscount Kemsley.

In accordance with an electoral truce between the parties in the wartime coalition government, neither the Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 nor Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 parties nominated a candidate.

Result

As the only candidate, Berry was returned unopposed. He held the seat for only two years, until his defeat at the 1945 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1945

The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...

.

See also

• List of United Kingdom by-elections
• Buckingham constituency
  Buckingham (UK Parliament constituency)
  Buckingham is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...
  
  
• Buckingham by-election, 1937
  Buckingham by-election, 1937
  The Buckingham by-election of 1937 was a by-election held on 11 June 1937 for the British House of Commons constituency of Buckingham in Buckinghamshire....