Middlesbrough West by-election, 1928

The Middlesbrough West by-election, 1928 was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Middlesbrough West on 7 March 1928.

The by-election was caused by the death of the sitting Liberal MP, Walter Trevelyan Thomson who had held the seat since 1918. Although Middlesbrough West had been Liberal since 1918 and the predecessor seat of Middlesbrough had been Liberal since 1886 (with the exception of the 1900 general election), no recent contest had been three-cornered and Trevelyan Thompson had made the seat so much his own that he had not even been opposed in 1924. So, there was no reliable way of knowing how the votes would fall.

The Liberals selected Frank Kingsley Griffith, a thirty-eight-year-old barrister from London and formerly unsuccessful candidate at Bromley at the general elections of 1922, 1923 and 1924. Griffith was also Chairman of the National League of Young Liberals. It was reported that Trevelyan Thomson’s wife, Hilda, had been approached as a possible candidate in succession to her husband but that her health ruled her out.

The Unionists chose as their candidate, local councillor and businessman Stanley Sadler. Sadler was the son of Samuel Sadler the first Conservative Member of Parliament for Middlesbrough and the founder of Sadler & Company, a chemicals business. Stanley Sadler was a former Mayor of Middlesbrough.

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