Following the outbreak of war in 1914, Arbuthnot's slavishly doctrinaire nature proved harmful to his command abilities, particularly during the German raid on Scarborough when he allowed a group of German light cruisers and destroyers to escape without resistance because he had not yet received official orders from Warrender to open fire. "Orion"s captain, Frederic Charles Dreyer, had his 13.5-inch guns trained on the enemy ships and later claimed that he repeatedly requested permission to fire, but despite the battle having already been joined for several hours, Arbuthnot refused to allow Dreyer to fire before receiving Warrender's explicit order (via flag hoist) to do so. By the time Warrender (attending to other aspects of the battle in HMS "King George V") realized the cause of Arbuthnot's reticence and had the order hoisted, the ships had already turned away and escaped.