George de Boer was at Cambridge University when the Second World War started. He originally applied for a commission, but later withdrew his application and registered as a Conscientious Objector. He worked in agriculture and the Civil Defence.

George de Boer also worked with urban planner Max Lock on the Hull Regional Survey in 1943 (see U DDB/1/8) and published his first paper 'A system of glacier lakes in the Yorkshire Wolds' in the Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society in 1944 (see U DDB/3/7/7).