The 1939 Hythe by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 20 July 1939 for the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

Hythe Hythe, from Anglo-Saxon ''hȳð'', may refer to a landing-place, port or haven, either as an element in a toponym, such as Rotherhithe in London, or to: Places Australia * Hythe, Tasmania Canada *Hythe, Alberta, a village in Canada England * T ...

Previous MP

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

Previous result

Candidates

*The Conservatives selected a London County Councillor,

Rupert Brabner Commander Rupert Arnold Brabner (29 October 1911 – 27 March 1945) was a British Member of Parliament (MP) who served with the Royal Navy as a pilot in the Second World War and became an ace with 5.5 confirmed kills. Politics Brabner, from ...

, 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 Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line r ...

Division of Suffolk at the 1929 general election and for the

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...

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 Harry St John Bridger Philby, CIE (3 April 1885 – 30 September 1960), also known as Jack Philby or Sheikh Abdullah ( ar, الشيخ عبدالله), was a British Arabist, adviser, explorer, writer, and Colonial Office intelligence officer. ...

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

Aftermath

Rupert Brabner served as a junior Government Minister. He died on active service with the

RNVR The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

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.

References

{{By-elections to the 37th UK Parliament 1939 elections in the United Kingdom 1939 in England By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Kent constituencies Folkestone and Hythe District 1930s in Kent