The 1937 Farnham by-election was held on 23 March 1937. The by-election was held due to the elevation to the peerage of the incumbent Conservative MP,

Arthur Samuel Arthur Lee Samuel (December 5, 1901 – July 29, 1990) was an American pioneer in the field of computer gaming and artificial intelligence. He popularized the term "machine learning" in 1959. The Samuel Checkers-playing Program was among the wo ...

. It was won by the Conservative candidate

Godfrey Nicholson Sir Godfrey Nicholson, 1st Baronet (9 December 1901 – 14 July 1991) was a British Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP). Early life and education A member of the family which founded London-based gin distillers J&W Nicholson & Co, N ...

. Peter Pain, a recently qualified barrister, contested the election for the Labour Party. Earlier in the decade, he had visited a

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

camp, and this experience convinced him that a war was inevitable, and that he should oppose Nazism by becoming a socialist.

Linton Thorp Linton Theodore Thorp (21 February 1884 – 6 July 1950) was a British politician and judge. Born in Marlow in Buckinghamshire, Thorp was educated at Manchester Grammar School and University College London. He became a barrister at Lincoln's I ...

, who contested the election as an independent conservative, was a former Conservative MP who had left the party believing that some of its policies were too close to socialism. He stood with the support of the pro-Nazi Liberty Restoration League.Michael Stenton and Stephen Lees, ''Who's Who of British Members of Parliament'', vol.3, p.356 The election was won by the Conservative candidate

References

1937 elections in the United Kingdom 1937 in England 20th century in Surrey Farnham By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Surrey constituencies {{England-UK-Parl-by-election-stub