In 1919, the business moved to workshops at Turnham Green Terrace in Chiswick, London, which had been vacated by August Gern.

The Electrone, an electrostatic tonewheel instrument introduced in 1938, evolved out of research by Leslie Bourn, an association begun in the 1920s.

Compton also befriended a wealthy industrialist by the name of Albert Henry Midgley, one of the founders of C A Vandervell which later became CAV-Lucas Ltd; a major supplier of electrical equipment to the motor industry.

Midgley's genius in electrical engineering and mass-production techniques helped the Compton firm to achieve an extraordinary level of productivity.

The company was awarded many original patents in things ranging from simple organ mechanisms to the most complex, state-of-the-art electronic and electrical inventions.

He was interned as an enemy alien but spent much of his time restoring pipe organs before being permitted to return to England.