The seat had become vacant when the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), Sir William Mitchell-Thomson had been elevated to the peerage as Baron Selsdon.
The Conservative candidate was Herbert Williams, who had been MP for Reading until his defeat at the 1929 general election.
His only opponent was the Labour Party candidate, Rudolph Putnam Messel, who had contested South Molton in 1929 and 1931.
The local Liberal association, who had polled a strong third in 1929 but had not stood in 1931 selected barrister Alun Llewellyn to run as their candidate.
On a low turnout, the result was a victory for Williams: a swing of 12.8% to Labour merely reduced the Conservative majority from huge to large.