The seat had become vacant on the death of the constituency's Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), George Balfour.
In accordance with the war-time electoral pact, neither the Labour nor the Liberal parties fielded a candidate.
Billing had won a by-election during the First World War as a right-wing independent and was seeking to replicate his success.
William Reginald Hipwell, editor of Reveille, a " barrack room newspaper for the fighting forces",[1] stood as an Independent Progressive.
Dolland stood as an independent, and advocated all-out aid to the Soviet Union.