By 1936 the Hancock family were living at 110 Sloane Street in London’s fashionable Kensington,  as well as owning a country house at  Lingfield,  Surrey.  Ralph had purchased the derelict 16th century farmhouse in a dilapidated state and set about restoring the property to its former glory.  He also designed and built one of his trademark gardens using many of the features that have become familiar,  such as a herringbone brickwork path and a sunken garden.

Ralph and his young family took to the country life.   The image above was taken in the summer of 1944 soon after Sheila had returned from America.  It shows Ralph, Muriel, Sheila, Bramley's wife Susie and their daughter Angela.   Bramley himself was in the army and was either already in France or about to embark.

Ralph decided to keep pigs and,  although he employed someone to look after them, he even purchased a pig keeper’s white coat, much to the amusement of the family. Sadly, the family house at Lingfield was sold by Ralph in 1941 and the family moved back to Sloane Street, London.

The two images below show the Hancock family home as it was when Ralph and his  family knew it circa 1938 and again in 2007.  The later image clearly shows Ralph's trademark herringbone brick path, sadly now in a poor state of repair.  The planting too looks much as it did 70 years before, albeit now very mature. The rear garden still has many of Ralph's trademark features, including a mock Tudor tool shed or summer house. Sadly the sunken garden has disappeared overtime.

Ralph continued to be a very successful exhibitor at the Chelsea Flower Show,  winning gold medals in 1936, ’37 and ’38. The gardens constructed at Chelsea had moved away from the naturalistic rock garden style towards the arts and crafts style that is now more associated with his later work.  One of Ralph's specialities became the use of Moon Gates,  which he used both at Chelsea and a number of other garden projects.  The Times newspaper reported on 27 May 1937;  "A very clever reproduction of a formal Tudor garden on traditional lines has been arranged by Mr Ralph Hancock. The main feature is an octagonal courtyard surrounded by old brick walls, with openings filled by wrought iron panels, and containing an old pump. A brick and stone walkway leads through a series of vine-clad archways towards an oak door, in front of which stand a sundial."

His 1938 Chelsea garden was particularly popular.  A review in Amateur Gardening said,  “Mr Ralph Hancock had one of the most ambitious schemes in the garden avenue;  a model of an old mill cottage,  complete with millstream and sunken garden,  the whole construction being carried out in a most realistic manner.  It was a centre of attraction throughout the show.”

As well as designing gardens, Hancock also wrote a book titled When I Make a Garden,  which was reprinted in 1950 and updated to include images of the Derry and Toms roof gardens as well as later work.  He also exhibited gardens at the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1936, ’37 and ’38.  Each of the Ideal Homes gardens was required to conform to a theme.  In 1936 the theme was Gardens and Music.  The garden was to feature 1,200 plants that were brought over from the USA.  The 1937 theme was Gardens of the Lovers for which Ralph took as his inspiration Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire.

The theme for the 1938 show was Novelist and their Gardens for which the designers had to take as inspiration their favourite living author.  Ralph chose as his inspiration Rafael Sabatini.  Sabatini was famous for his tales of high adventure such as Scaramouche,  Captain Blood and The Sea Hawk,  all of which became successful motion pictures.  Captain Blood was produced in 1935 and gave a young Errol Flynn his first ever Hollywood starring role.

The show catalogue for that year hints at some form of collaboration between the author and the architect. Although of Italian birth Sabatini was living in Hereford.  Ralph’s garden tribute to Sabatini featured a half-timbered cottage and also his trademark herringbone brickwork.  The planting consisted of rhododendrons,  heathers and aquatic plants near a winding brook.  In 1939 Ralph won a silver cup at Chelsea for a Formal Mediterranean Garden.

Gardens and beautiful landscapes were put on hold with the advent of World War Two.  Ralph,  Denys and Bramley all joined the military,  even Muriel drove ambulances.

Ralph, who had previously served as a Second Lieutenant in the Great War with the Welsh Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery,  was re-activated on 3 July 1940.  He was promoted to the rank of Captain.  Second Lieutenant Denys Hancock, who was to tragically lose his life on 20 November 1941 at the battle of Sidi Rezegh,  North Africa joined the Royal Tank Regiment and Captain Bramley Hancock served as a Royal Artillery FOO (Forward Observation Officer).  Sheila,  who was only 11 when war was declared,  was sent to neutral America to stay with family friends.  She left Liverpool, aboard the "SS Scythia",  on 25 June 1940.

Denys along with over 2600 other casualties is buried at Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma, Libya. 

Back home in England,  Derry and Toms was damaged during an enemy air-raid.  However,  after the war ended it was rebuilt.  Although the garden was restored to it’s pre-war splendour neither Ralph nor Muriel fully recovered after the death of their youngest son,  Denys.