At the outbreak of war, he was called down to London to represent the "Daily Mail" at the Press Bureau in London. In October 1914 he was ordered to try to get to Ostend before it was taken by the German Army. When he discovered that he was too late, he traveled to Europe anyway and managed to get to Dunkirk, where he stayed three months. He lived there as a fugitive because of a ban on war reporters at the front during the early part of the war and was the first reporter to get into Ypres following the German destruction of it in November 1914.