For the next three years, the house was used simply as a District Headquarters with P.B. Nevill as Resident Commissioner. He lacked Roland's private means and had to make his living as a chartered accountant devoting as much time as he could spare to scouting.

It was a difficult time for the movement with so many of its leaders away in the forces. Soon the older scouts were following them and their names, too, began to appear in the casualty lists. For two more agonising years the war dragged on until November, 1918, when the allies, only slightly less exhausted than the Germans, were eventually victorious and the massive job of recovery began. For scouting this was a major task as so many of Roland's generation had been killed or maimed in the carnage of France and Flanders.