The seat had become vacant on the death of the constituency's Coalition Unionist Member of Parliament (MP), Harry Wrightson on 11 February 1919.

The Unionist Party selected as its candidate James Francis Mason, who was a director of the Great Western Railway and had been MP for Windsor between 1906 and the preceding General Election.

Mason's campaign sought to repeat the theme of the previous General Election, where Unionists had run solely on the glory of having won the war.

[1] Newbould's main campaign points were the abolition of conscription and a crackdown on profiteering [2] the first policy was said to appeal to men and the second to women.

[3] Unfortunately for part of the contest he was confined to bed with a bad cold and his wife was engaged as principal canvasser on his behalf.