1939 Hythe by-election

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20 July 1939

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Constituency of Hythe

Turnout

62.4% (

5.9%)

	First party	Second party
		Lib
Candidate	Rupert Brabner	Frank Ongley Darvall
Party	Conservative	Liberal
Popular vote	12,016	9,577
Percentage	54.2%	43.2%
Swing	9.7%	7.1%

MP before election

Philip Sassoon
Conservative

Elected MP

Rupert Brabner
Conservative

The 1939 Hythe by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 20 July 1939 for the British House of Commons constituency of Hythe.

Previous MP

The vacancy was caused by the death of the Conservative MP, Sir Philip Sassoon, 3rd Baronet.

Previous result

General election, 14 November 1935^[1] Electorate: 35,205
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Philip Sassoon	15,359	63.9	-21.0
	Liberal	Richard Hathaway Ellis	8,688	36.1	New
Majority			6,671	27.8	-42.0
Turnout			24,047	68.3	-3.5
	Conservative hold		Swing

Candidates

The Conservatives selected a London County Councillor, Rupert Brabner, to defend the seat.
Hythe was not one of the Liberal Party's better prospects. They drafted a new candidate for the by-election: 33-year-old Frank Darvall, who had been selected as the prospective candidate for the more winnable Dorset East. He had been the Liberal candidate for the Ipswich Division of Suffolk at the 1929 general election and for the King's Lynn Division of Norfolk at the 1935 general election. He was President of the National Union of Students from 1927 to 1929.
As in the 1935 general election campaign, the Hythe Labour Party chose not to run a candidate. However, a former Labour party member did contest the election: St John Philby stood as a candidate for the newly formed British People's Party, a right-wing anti-war party that broke away from the British Union of Fascists.

Result

Hythe by-election, 1939^[1] Electorate 35,535
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Rupert Brabner	12,016	54.2	-9.7
	Liberal	Frank Ongley Darvall	9,577	43.2	+7.1
	British People's	St John Philby	576	2.6	New
Majority			2,439	11.0	-16.8
Turnout			22,169	62.4	-5.9
	Conservative hold		Swing	-8.4

Aftermath

Rupert Brabner served as a junior Government Minister. He died on active service with the RNVR early in 1945. Frank Darvall had planned to contest Hythe at a 1939 or 1940 general election, but never stood for Parliament again. St. John Philby also disappeared from the electoral scene along with the British People's Party, which never contested an election again.

General election, 5 July 1945^[1] Electorate 23,575
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Harry Mackeson	8,048	46.5	-7.7
	Labour	David Graham Widdiscombe	6,091	35.2	New
	Liberal	Arthur Dyke Beauchamp James	3,152	18.2	-25.0
Majority			1,957	11.3	+0.3
Turnout			17,291	73.3	+10.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

References

^ ^a ^b ^c British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig

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1936	January: Combined Scottish Universities February: Ross and Cromarty March: Dunbartonshire Llanelli May: Peckham June: Lewes July: Derby Balham and Tooting East Grinstead October: Birmingham Erdington November: Clay Cross Preston Greenock
1937	February: St Pancras North Manchester Gorton Oxford University Richmond-upon-Thames March: Combined English Universities Tonbridge Farnham April: Stalybridge and Hyde Wandsworth Central Birmingham West May: York June: Glasgow Hillhead Buckingham Plymouth Drake Cheltenham Hemel Hempstead Holland with Boston Bewdley Ilford St Ives July: Kingston-upon-Thames Chertsey North Dorset September: Glasgow Springburn October: Islington North November: Hastings
1938	January: Farnworth February: Pontypridd Ipswich Combined Scottish Universities April: City of London Fulham West May: Lichfield Aylesbury June: West Derbyshire Stafford Barnsley July: Willesden East October: Oxford November: Dartford Walsall Bridgwater Doncaster Lewisham West Fylde December: Kinross and Western Perthshire
1939	January: East Norfolk February: Holderness Ripon March: Batley and Morley Kincardineshire and Western Aberdeenshire April: South Ayrshire May: Down Sheffield Hallam Westminster Abbey Birmingham Aston Southwark North Kennington July: Caerphilly Portsmouth South North Cornwall Hythe Monmouth Colne Valley August: Brecon and Radnorshire October: Fareham High Peak Clackmannanshire and East Stirlingshire Ormskirk Ashton-under-Lyne November: Macclesfield December: Streatham Stretford Wells
1940	February: Southampton City of London Swansea East Belfast East Southwark Central Silvertown Cambridge University March: Kettering City of Chester Leeds North East April: Argyllshire Lonsdale Battersea North Glasgow Pollok May: Brighton East Renfrewshire Middleton and Prestwich June: Spen Valley Newcastle North Bow and Bromley Croydon North Wandsworth Central Bournemouth July: Newcastle West Montrose Burghs Nottingham Central Rochdale Wansbeck August: Middlesbrough West Mitcham Heywood and Radcliffe September: Bolton Manchester Exchange Preston November: Queen's University of Belfast Aldershot Southampton December: Northampton Birmingham Edgbaston
1941	February: Doncaster South Dorset Petersfield Dunbartonshire March: Hitchin Bodmin Carmarthen April: Great Yarmouth West Bromwich Mansfield May: Birmingham King's Norton Hornsey June: West Dorset July: Greenock Edinburgh West Dudley Pontefract August: Berwick-upon-Tweed September: Scarborough and Whitby The Wrekin October: Lancaster November: Brighton Hampstead December: Harrow Edinburgh Central
1942	February: North East Derbyshire Keighley March: Nuneaton Manchester Gorton Newcastle-under-Lyme Wigan Grantham April: Tavistock Cardiff East Glasgow Cathcart Wallasey Rugby May: Putney Chichester June: Llandaff and Barry Maldon Windsor July: Salisbury Spennymoor August: Rothwell Whitechapel and St Georges Poplar South Sheffield Park October: Manchester Clayton Ince
1943	January: Hamilton University of Wales February: Belfast West Ashford Antrim Midlothian and Peebles King's Lynn Portsmouth North Bristol Central Watford April: Buckingham Eddisbury Daventry June: The Hartlepools Newark Birmingham Aston July: Burton-on-Trent August: Chippenham October: St Albans Peterborough November: Woolwich West December: Consett Darwen Acton
1944	January: Skipton February: Brighton West Derbyshire Kirkcaldy Burghs Sheffield Attercliffe Bury St Edmunds March: Camberwell North April: Clay Cross July: Manchester Rusholme September: Bilston October: Chelsea Berwick-upon-Tweed
1945	April: Motherwell Combined Scottish Universities Chelmsford Caernarvon Boroughs May: Middlesbrough West Neath Newport
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