The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Liberal Member of Parliament, Harcourt Johnstone died on 1 March 1945, aged 49.
Johnstone had previously served as MP for Willesden East from 1923–24 and for South Shields from 1931–35.
Accordingly, the Liberal Party nominated a candidate, but no Labour or Conservative representative was put forward.
The Liberal Party candidate, supporting the coalition government, was the war hero Air Vice Marshal Donald Clifford Tyndall Bennett (14 September 1910 – 15 September 1986).
Bennett was defeated by Geoffrey Cooper of the Labour Party at the 1945 general election.