1943 The Hartlepools by-election was held on 1 June 1943. The by-election was held due to the death of the incumbent Conservative MP, William George Howard Gritten. It was won by the Conservative candidate Thomas George Greenwell,[1] who was not opposed by a Liberal or a Labour candidate due to the war time electoral truce where the main parties pledged not to oppose each other's candidates until the end of the Second World War.