By the time he turned professional in October 1940, League football had been suspended because of the war, but Roles made 188 wartime appearances, more than any other Saints player.
Roles was not conscripted during the war because his employment, making engines for torpedo boats at Parsons on the Town Quay, was a reserved occupation.
[4] In the summer of 1946, Roles was called up to do his National Service and before he returned to The Dell in 1948, his position at left back was occupied by Bill Rochford who had been signed in July 1946.
In the event, Southampton (also without top-scorer, Charlie Wayman) lost 2–0 at Bradford and only won once in the final six matches, missing promotion by one point.
Following his recovery, Roles was employed by Harland & Wolff, before spending twenty years as a technician at Southampton Institute of Higher Education.