When war was declared in August 1914, Private Warner was mobilised from the Reserves and rejoined the 1st Battalion who were based in Ireland at the time. He arrived on the Western Front with the battalion on 16 August 1914 and fought in the Battle of Mons, the Battle of Le Cateau, during the rearguard actions of the British Army's Retreat from Mons, at the First Battle of the Marne, the First Battle of the Aisne, the Battle of La Bassée and the First Battle of Ypres. Despite the intensity of those early battles and the long casualty list his battalion sustained, Ted came through it all with just a poisoned hand.