During the First World War Scarborough and the east coast suffered more attention from the Kaiser's fleet than is generally appreciated, and the threat from the sub-marine menace was partly influential in the decline of Scarborough as a port, particularly as some ten to twelve trawlers were sunk offshore in one night.

The lighthouse itself suffered in the famous Scarborough Bombardment of December 1914.  Two German battlecruisers and a light cruiser, Derrflinger, Von der Tann and Kolberg, laid siege to both Scarborough and Hartlepool on that infamous day.  Whilst the cruiser Kolberg was busy laying mines along the coast at Bridlington, Flamborough, Filey, Scarborough and Whitby the two battlecruisers began peppering the town of Scarborough with their 11"/12" guns at 8am and for the next thirty minutes created havoc within the Town. Over 200 buildings were damaged or destroyed and eight people killed. The lighthouse had however seemingly escaped unscathed until the last of the 520 shells tore into the upper part of the building, which was later demolished leaving only the lower part standing.

Whilst in December 1917 (the Germans clearly liked Christmas in Scarborough) Scarborough was again subject to enemy naval attack when a German U-boat surfaced some four miles offshore and peppered the harbour with some thirty rounds of shells, half of which fell on fishing and pleasure boats but little damage was caused and on this occasion the lighthouse escaped further damage.