 Medley's appointment was blocked by MI5 who considered him to be "closely associated with subversive Communist doctrine".Instead WAAC offered Medley a contract to record air raid precautions in the north-east of England and he spent an enjoyable two months based in Newcastle upon Tyne doing just that.Earlier he had, like many other artists, put his name forward to undertake camouflage work for the war effort and when his WAAC contract was completed, Medley was sent to Cairo as a camouflage officer and spent the rest of the war there.