It was held due to the incumbent Conservative MP and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, David Ormsby-Gore becoming the British Ambassador to Washington.
[1] The by-election was won by the future Conservative cabinet minister John Biffen, then aged 31.
The local Liberals selected 36 year old John Buchanan.
He was born in July 1925 and was educated at Collyer's School, Horsham.
[2] This article about a by-election to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in England is a stub.