The 1945 Chelmsford by-election was a parliamentary

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

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 of

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London a ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

on 26 April 1945.

Vacancy

The by-election was caused by the death of the sitting

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

MP,

John Macnamara Colonel John Robert Jermain Macnamara (11 October 1905 – 22 December 1944) was a British Conservative Party politician and officer of the British Army who was killed while fighting in Italy during the Second World War. He was the last sitting ...

. He was killed on active service in Italy on 22 December 1944. He had been MP here since holding the seat in 1935.

Election history

Chelmsford had been won by the Conservative Party at every election since 1924, when they re-gained the seat from the Liberals, and was now a safe seat. The result at the last General election was as follows;

Candidates

The local Conservatives selected 35-year-old Flight Lieutenant Brian Cook. Before the war he was a painter, designer and publisher. The Labour party had selected Dr Mary Day to contest a General Election expected to take place in 1939-40.Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party 1937-40 There had been no Liberal selected. At the outbreak of war, the Conservative, Liberal and Labour parties had agreed an electoral truce which meant that when a by-election occurred, the party that was defending the seat would not be opposed by an official candidate from the other two parties. When the Labour and Liberal parties joined the Coalition government, it was agreed that any by-election candidate defending a government seat would receive a letter of endorsement jointly signed by all the party leaders. The

Common Wealth Party The Common Wealth Party (CW) was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom with parliamentary representation from the middle of the Second World War until the year after its end. Thereafter it continued in being, essentially as a pres ...

put forward 29-year-old

Ernest Millington Ernest Rogers Millington (15 February 19169 May 2009) was a British Common Wealth and later Labour Member of Parliament (MP). Following the death of John Profumo on 10 March 2006, Millington was the only living former MP from the 38th Parl ...

as candidate. He served with the

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II. From 1942 onward, the British bo ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, where he rose to the rank of

wing commander Wing commander (Wg Cdr in the RAF, the IAF, and the PAF, WGCDR in the RNZAF and RAAF, formerly sometimes W/C in all services) is a senior commissioned rank in the British Royal Air Force and air forces of many countries which have historical ...

and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1945.

Campaign

Polling day was set for 26 April 1945. When nominations closed, it was to reveal a two horse race, between the Conservative Cook and Millington for the Common Wealth party. Cook received a joint letter of endorsement from all the leaders of the parties in the coalition. Millington advocated a socialist programme based on nationalisation of the land and public ownership.

Result

Millington gained the seat;

Aftermath

When the 29-year-old Millington took his seat, he was the youngest MP in the House, which had been elected in 1935. The victory signalled the shift in public opinion that led the Labour party to pull out of the wartime coalition government and win a landslide victory in the 5 July 1945 general election. Millington held his seat in the

1945 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1945. Africa * 1945 South-West African legislative election Asia * 1945 Indian general election Australia * 1945 Fremantle by-election Europe * 1945 Albanian parliamentary election * 1945 Bulgaria ...

and joined the Labour Party in April 1946. The result at the following General election; Cook, as Brian Batsford, was elected as Tory MP for Ealing South at a by-election on 12 June 1958.

References

{{By-elections to the 37th UK Parliament 1945 in England Politics of the City of Chelmsford 1945 elections in the United Kingdom By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Essex constituencies 1940s in Essex