Shropshire withstood the Labour tide

A marginal constituency which had swapped hands several times, it fell to Labour man Ivor Thomas, who gained the seat at the expense of the Tory, Arthur Colegate. Thomas was a former railway engine cleaner who later joined the head office staff of the National Union of Railwaymen. His majority was 5,031.

Colegate had taken the seat in a by-election in September 1941, and was the only one of the 12 Shropshire candidates who was seeking re-election, all the others being new to the fray.

The by-election had been caused by the death in 1940 of Colonel James Baldwin Webb, who had drowned after a U-boat had sunk his ship.

Labour leader Clement Attlee had made a very brief contribution to the local campaign, having called at Wellington on a journey from the Labour conference in Blackpool. He left a message for local electors saying he hoped they would "repeat 1929" - the last time Labour had won the seat.

The Wrekin was the only one of the four Shropshire seats in which the Liberals did not field a candidate.

Elsewhere, the Conservatives held firm and in Shrewsbury a new MP was elected who was to be a fixture in the constituency for decades.

He was Commander John Langford Holt, aged 29, whose family home was at Port Hill, Shrewsbury. Holt had served in the Fleet Air Arm, and had taken part in an attack on the German battleship Tirpitz.

Sir John, as he became, held the Shrewsbury seat until 1983.

In Ludlow, there was a colourful independent farming candidate, Charles Edwards of Seifton, near Craven Arms, who had land near Acton Burnell. He had an eye-catching supporter at open air meetings - a member of his staff dressed as a cowboy and riding a horse called Jigger.

Mr Edwards said the clothes were those he wore when "learning a thing or two out in the prairies."

He polled 989 votes. Winner of the Ludlow seat was Lt Col Uvedale Corbett, who was nicknamed "Streak." He came from Stableford, near Bridgnorth. His majority over the Labour man (Squadron Leader A Parry Jones) was 7,570.

There were some eve-of-poll incidents. In Shrewsbury the Liberal cause cannot have been helped by the resignation of the treasurer of the Shrewsbury Liberal Association, Mr M.H. Burke, over the attitude of the Liberal candidate, Mr A.S. Comyns Carr, on Catholic schools.

And the Shrewsbury Conservative agent, Captain La Brum, had two tyres of his car deliberately punctured as it was parked in Fish Street, and some election labels were ripped off.

Winner of the Oswestry seat was Colonel O.B.S. Poole, for the Tories, with a majority of 8,305. Aged 34, he had a distinguished record of war service in North Africa and Europe and was a member of Lloyds insurance brokers.