The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Member of Parliament (MP), George Charles Grey, was killed in action.

Grey (2 December 1918 – 30 July 1944), the son of a major-general, had joined the British Army in 1938 before the outbreak of the Second World War the following year.

A captain in the 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards, Grey was killed at Le Repas in Normandy, France, on the first day of Operation Bluecoat.

Accordingly, the Liberal Party nominated a candidate, but no Labour or Conservative representative was put forward.

He is perhaps best known for his 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Services (known as the Beveridge Report[1]) which served as the basis for the post-World War II Labour government's Welfare State, including especially the National Health Service.