It was won by the Conservative candidate Charles Morrison a member of Wiltshire County Council and chair of its Education Committee.
[1] Opinion poll forecasts and against the trend in the three other by-elections held on the same day were predicting a Labour win.
"[1] The by-election was held on the same day as three others with the Conservatives also defending seats in contests at Bury St Edmunds, Rutherglen and Winchester.
On the day of the election, an article in The Glasgow Herald reported that both Labour and the Conservatives claimed to be confident of victory in Devizes.
The following day he described in his diary the loss of the seat by 1,000 votes as "a real set-back" for Labour's hopes of victory in the forthcoming general election.