With the outbreak of war in September 1939 many of the staff of the Ministry (then H.M. Office) of Works concerned with ancient monuments were drafted to other work, military or civil. Yet the tasks falling to the lot of their fellows, who were left at their normal desks, so far from decreasing, as their colleagues of other divisions often blandly suggested, were soon increased very far beyond their normal peace-time scope. It is true that work on the preservation of the structures of guardianship monuments dwindled slowly until it became insignificant in amount, but it never entirely ceased, because of a firm determination not to destroy the cadre of skilled foremen and masons which it would be extremely difficult to replace. The supervision of this work, therefore, remained as one task even in war-time.