West Derbyshire was a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Historically associated with the Cavendish family, the seat and its predecessors were usually represented by one of the future Dukes of Devonshire or their relatives from 1580 until the Second World War.

In 1918 the hold on the constituency was briefly broken by Charles Frederick White standing for the Liberals, but the seat was regained in 1923.

The closest they have come to losing was in the 1986 by-election when they held it by only 100 votes in a period of heavy unpopularity for the government of Margaret Thatcher.

The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected; Craig, F. W. S. (1983).