1968 Kensington South by-election

{{Short description|UK parliamentary by-election}}

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The 1968 Kensington South by-election by-election was held in the Kensington South constituency of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on 14 March 1968. The election was to fill a vacancy in the seat formerly held by Conservative MP William Roots, who resigned from Parliament in 1968 due to ill health.

The seat was considered a safe seat for the Conservatives ('as safe and solid as the red-brick Victorian blocks of flats', wrote the Times); at the 1966 general election Roots was elected with 65.1 percent of the vote and a majority of 14,631. Turnout was expected to be low as the constituency had a large transient population living in bedsits and flats.{{cite news|last=Young|first=John|title=Bedsitter vote being wooed: Multiple clash a puzzle|newspaper=The Times|date=2 March 1968}}

The Conservative Sir Brandon Rhys-Williams, a management consultant, won the seat with 75.5 percent of the vote and a slightly reduced majority (13,747) on a much reduced turnout. The Liberal candidate Thomas Kellock, a QC who had fought the seat at the previous general election, came in a distant second, with Labour candidate Clive Bradley, a barrister and journalist, forced into third place and losing his deposit."Tories sweep in at Kensington Labour candidate loses deposit in low poll", The Times, 15 March 1968. There were two independent candidates who received the fewest votes: Sinclair Eustace, 37, a teacher of phonetics and a campaigner against aircraft noise, described by The Times as 'perhaps the most civilized and likeable' of all the candidates but with a platform very close to that of the Liberal Party; and William Gold, 45, an engineer and 'a Buddhist, anti-vivisectionist, periodic vegetarian and author of at least six unpublished novels' who had only just returned to the UK after living in Australia."Far From Madding Parties", The Times, 7 March 1968.