Production of the work was slowed by the First World War and the ill health of contributors, and Volume II was eventually abandoned.
These factors, possibly combined with increasing age, meant that Volume II of the History, for which he was the editor, was incomplete at the time of his death in 1937.
[2] He had confided to colleagues that the slow pace of the work meant that large parts of it needed to be updated to include the latest scholarship.
[3] Volumes III and IV were assigned to Wolseley Haig, former Professor of Arabic, Persian and Hindustani at Trinity College, Dublin.
"[5] Volumes V and VI were edited by H. H. Dodwell, Professor of History and Culture of the British Dominions in Asia at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) from 1922 to 1946.