Temple married his girlfriend Joan in September 1939: their relationship inspired Temple's most famous story, "Four-Sided Triangle", the first version of which appeared in the November 1939 issue of "Amazing Stories" as "The 4-Sided Triangle". In September 1940 he was conscripted and served as a field artillery signaller while Joan and their daughter Anne Patrizio were evacuated to Cornwall. While serving in the North African Campaign, Temple began work on a novel-length "Four-Sided Triangle" but lost the half-finished manuscript during a battle in the Tunisian Campaign at Takrouna. He subsequently participated in the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943, during which he learned of the birth of his son Peter and the subsequent invasion of Italy, where he lost a second manuscript of "Four-Sided Triangle" during the Battle of Anzio. During his time in Italy, he received the tragic news that his son had died of a viral infection aged just seven months. He resumed work on "Four-Sided Triangle" while on leave in Rome and completed it in the Alps: on his return home in October 1945 he typed the novel and began to submit it to publishers, after four rejections it was accepted by John Long and published in July 1949 to positive reviews. A film version of "Four Sided Triangle" directed by Terence Fisher was released in 1953. His son Cliff Temple was born in 1947.