Despite being down the pecking order throughout the 1930s and missing out on the success that Arsenal enjoyed, Compton stuck with Arsenal and won a Charity Shield winners' medal in 1938–39, playing 19 times that season. However the Second World War then intervened; Compton served in the Army while continuing to play football for Arsenal. Converted to an emergency centre-forward, he once scored ten times in a wartime match against Leyton Orient, which finished 15–2 to Arsenal. He also guested for Chester, scoring a hat-trick against Everton during the 1942–43 season. In June 1940, he was one of five Arsenal players who guested for Southampton in a victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage.