The by-election was held due to the death of the incumbent Labour MP, Samuel Clowes.
[1] The Liberal Party candidate was Walter Meakin, a 52-year-old Stafford man.
Meakin was born in 1876 and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and the London School of Economics.
Meakin had stood for parliament before, at five general elections: December 1910 at West Staffordshire, 1918 at Stafford, 1922 at Birmingham King's Norton and 1923 and 1924 at Stone.
He had been re-selected to contest Stone for a third time at the next general election,[2] but was drafted for the Hanley by-election.