The by-election was caused by the appointment of the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), Edward Marshall Hall as the Recorder of Guildford.
[1] The Recorder's role as a part-time judge disqualified him from sitting in Parliament, and his acceptance of the post automatically caused a vacancy, and Hall accepted the appointment after checking with the Liverpool Conservatives that a by-election would not be problematic for them.
[2] The writ of election for the by-election was moved in the Commons on 10 February by William Bridgeman, the MP for Oswestry.
[3] The Conservatives had already selected Captain James Stuart Rankin as their prospective candidate for the next general election.
[2] The 36-year-old Rankin,[4] who was then serving in Liverpool with the Royal Field Artillery, was formally adopted on 14 February as the Conservative candidate for the by-election.