1943 St Albans by-election

The Conservative Party nominated as its candidate 31-year-old John Grimston, who was then serving in the Royal Air Force. Grimston was the son and heir of the 4th Earl of Verulam, and a cousin of the Assistant Postmaster-General Robert Grimston MP. In accordance with an electoral truce between the parties in the wartime coalition government, neither the Liberal nor Labour parties nominated a candidate. However, a statement from the Army Council said that permission had been granted that afternoon, and blamed the delay on Douglas-Home not marking the application as urgent. Douglas-Home's agent R. T. A. Cornwell was unable to contact the would-be candidate to let him know that permission had finally been granted, because Douglas-Home was away on "some protracted military exercise". He had come up to London in a torn battledress in the morning, and had left after announcing his withdrawal. == Result ==

As the only candidate, Grimston was returned unopposed. He held the seat for only two years, until his defeat at the 1945 general election by the Labour candidate Cyril Dumpleton. and held it until he retired from the House of Commons at the 1959 general election. He succeeded to the peerage the following year as the 6th Earl of Verulam on the death of his elder brother. == See also ==