During the war, Vaughan served as a non-combatant. The Nissen hut barracks at Bulford Camp were crowded with men and crammed high with bunk beds. Their mattresses were filled with straw and there were no carpets, furniture or other home comforts. Only one or two light bulbs illuminated the gloomy interiors. Vaughan spent his evenings making paintings of his life in the army, propped up on his bunk bed with his sketchpad and a bottle of ink. The publisher John Lehmann saw some examples and illustrated them in ‘Penguin New Writing’. Soon after, Kenneth Clark, head of the War Artists’ Advisory Committee, purchased twelve of Vaughan’s wartime pictures for the nation. These are now housed in the Imperial War Museum. Several were exhibited at the National Gallery in 1943, alongside the work of the official war artists, Piper, Moore and Sutherland.