Following the death of the veteran D'Oyly Carte performer Fred Billington in November 1917, Sheffield took on most of his bass-baritone roles. A year later, Granville returned to play the lyric baritone roles that Sheffield had earlier played. These roles were the Counsel, Boatswain, Samuel, Strephon, Florian in "Princess Ida", Pish-Tush, the Lieutenant, and Luiz, later swapping the Counsel for the Usher in "Trial", adding the Colonel and later Grosvenor in "Patience", and swapping Luiz for Giuseppe in "The Gondoliers". In 1920, the critic Neville Cardus wrote of him, "As fine a Savoyard as any in the company, Mr. Sydney Granville acted and sang capitally. He has a rare instinct for the gauntness of the English ballad manner which is the secret of Gilbert's lyrical style ... also he never loses the suspicion of parody which so often underlines Sullivan's tunes." In 1921 Granville added to his repertoire the role of Cox in "Cox and Box", and by 1924, he had given up the smaller roles of Samuel and the Lieutenant. In 1925 he transferred to D'Oyly Carte's smaller touring company, playing Colonel Calverley in "Patience", Mountararat in "Iolanthe", the title role in "The Mikado", and Sir Roderic Murgatroyd in "Ruddigore".