by James Taylor
After Kitchener’s untimely death, Le Bas lamented the loss of a friend and Britain’s most valuable promotional aid. Le Bas edited The Lord Kitchener Memorial Book, which was profusely illustrated to mark his life and achievements, although the London Opinion poster featuring Leete’s Lord Kitchener cartoon was not included. The book was published in 1917 on behalf of the Lord Kitchener National Memorial Fund (of which Le Bas was the honorary organiser) to raise money for injured and disabled servicemen. In it, Le Bas wrote a short chapter, entitled Advertising For An Army, in which he outlined the positives of Kitchener’s reputation. Le Bas ‘knew the solid advantages of that wonderful name and personality, with their power to move people and inspire them to patriotic effort. The right to use the name made the enormous task of finding a new army all the easier.’
Cardiff recruiting station (Cardiff Central Library)
Le Bas’ laudatory comments about Kitchener were admirable in the wake of his death, however, the Secretary of State for War was far from being comfortable with being used for publicity material and remained suspicious of the popular appeals. His conservatism made it extremely difficult to develop an effective and sustained campaign. Le Bas went on record as saying that ‘Lord Kitchener! His name made the recruiting campaign possible and vindicated the voluntary system.’ However, some of the credit for the success of the appeals should also go to Le Bas. For his services during the war, Le Bas was justly knighted in 1916.23
As noted at the beginning of this book, the main official organisation tasked to enlist the men for war was the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee (PRC), an all-party body formed at the end of August 1914. The Prime Minister and leaders of the respective political parties were among its key members. Sub-Departments (SDs) were quickly established and that of ‘Publications and Publicity’ was tasked with the responsibility of producing a wide range of materials. At that time, posters were undoubtedly the most effective means of mass communication. The first radio station in Britain was only introduced in 1922, and the public at large either did not buy or a notable number could not read magazines and newspapers.
The Publications Sub-Department supervised the most concerted leaflet and poster recruiting drive Britain had ever seen, although at its first meeting on 3rd September 1914, when there was no shortage of recruits, it initially decided that the production of elaborate pictorial posters was not necessary. However, as the mood of the country changed and recruitment slowed, the PRC looked at alternatives to the simplistic and sober party election leaflets being produced at the time to entice recruits, and before Christmas the true power of the recruitment poster had been unleashed.24
Poster designs had been subjected to harsh criticism as ‘crude woodcuts, displayed haphazardly by the fly-posting system’ in the first half of the nineteenth century, however, W.E.D. Allen observed that ‘the early lithographs were also of poor quality.’ But gradually the standard improved, largely as a result of inspiration from across the Channel, where Cheret, Grasset, Toulouse-Lautrec and many others had turned great artistic talents to the work of posters. Most authorities on the subject agree that the first English poster of real merit was Fred Walker’s engraving of 1871, advertising Wilkie Collins’s drama, The Woman in White.
Other artists of repute entered the field, among them Professor Herkomer [Hubert von Herkomer], E.A. Abbey, W.P. Frith and H. Stacey Marks, all of the Royal Academy. Sir John Millais caused a public sensation by allowing Mr. Barrett, then Managing Director of Pears Soap, to use his ‘Bubbles’ as an advertisement, though it is possible to doubt whether the painter was aware of Barrett’s intentions when the deal was made. And in 1886, Sir Edward J. Poynter, the President of the Royal Academy himself, painted an advertisement for the Guardian Fire and Life Assurance Company, in which he conveyed the dignity of his office by an overpowering arrangement of symmetrical detail framing an over-dressed female figure bearing spear, shield and helmet.
Poster utilising Kitchener’s name and words (LoC)
Allen continued: ‘The ice was clearly broken. But it was not the desultory interest of a few Royal Academicians that blew real life into the poster art. In the closing years of the century there grew up a school of artists, such as Dudley Hardy, the Beggarstaff brothers, Albert Morrow and John Hassall, who put their best work into posters, and did something to support the claim that hoardings were the picture gallery of the poor man.’
In addition there were also considerable advances in technology: ‘Display boards were more solidly built, to weather storm and reduce the danger to the public. Billposting companies began to treat their stations as harmonious units, with bills neatly bordered and framed, and displayed with an eye to balance of colour and design. The result of improved craftsmanship was a marked change in public opinion, even affecting the hard core of S.C.A.P.A. itself.’ The Society for Checking the Abuses of Public Advertising SCAPA was founded in 1893.
‘The Key To The Situation’ (KCL)
Alas, the PRC committees were notable for being made up of administrators, clerks and managers. They lacked valuable in-house expertise relating to commercial and fine arts or the business of printing and publishing that would have been of practical benefit for the production of posters. So perhaps it is not surprising that early attempts were roundly criticised as the first official designs were largely unimaginative creations. This encouraged Le Bas to form his own Advisory Committee, taking initiative from H.E. Morgan, who was in charge of the publicity departments of W.H. Smith and Son. The government had refused to recognise Morgan’s committee but heeded his criticisms. Morgan described the early efforts of poster design in far from glowing terms, claiming them to be ‘such gross waste of space, such lack of imagination, such commonplace utterances and phrases given such sheer physical publicity’.
According to Hiley, Le Bas’ committee comprised ‘Wareham Smith and Thomas Russell, veterans of the first War Office campaign… Charles Frederick Higham, an influential advertising agent and editor of Higham’s Magazine, Henry Simonis, advertising manager of the Daily News and John Camille Akerman, managing director of Advertisers’ Weekly and soon to be advertising manager of The Times’. With Le Bas as Chairman and Eric Field as Secretary, they formed the ‘Voluntary Recruiting Publicity Committee’. They pledged to improve the standard of posters. Letterpress posters still had their place but the focus was now on the production of a wide range of pictorial posters that would, it was hoped, bring forth new recruits in significant numbers.
Motivational poster featuring Kitchener’s words (Priv.)
Minutes and records of the PRC’s activities and achievements (now held in the National Archives at Kew) indicate that their meetings were held at St. Stephen’s Chambers in Westminster, London, and also at Number 12, Downing Street, the official residence of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury.25 Two black and white photographs now in the collections of the British Library (BL) show the range of the PRC recruitment posters on the walls of the large Reception Room in Downing Street, although no posters featuring Leete’s Lord Kitchener cartoon can be seen. They were donated by Mr R. Humphrey Davies C.B., who worked as a clerk to the Joint Recruiting Committee of the PRC.26
Copies of official minutes taken by Davies himself (also part of the BL collections) reveal that ‘In 1915, the Committee was strengthened by the addition of 3 members of the Scottish Recruiting Committee and representatives of the Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party Committee, and was henceforward described as the Joint Recruiting Committee. The Committee met in the large Reception Room at 12 Downing Street (pictured on page 6), but two of its main sections met at Party Headquarters in St. Stephens Chambers… I can testify that throughout its proceedings, the Committee worked in the greatest harmony, taking care, at the same time, to ensure that it was a voluntary effort to secure recruits.’
‘The Empire Needs Men!’ (Priv.)
A poster campaign of epic proportions
The PRC records reveal that the Sub-Department
‘issued 164 posters of various shapes and sizes [all numbered 1 to 164], 10 cards for exhibition in windows, a large number of slips for use on taxi-cabs and trams and in railway carriages, long posters for use on gate posts in the country districts, and 65 pamphlets and leaflets varying in size from 56 paged pamphlets to single-paged leaflets. In the beginning the productions were circulated through the medium of the hundreds of Parliamentary Recruiting Committees throughout Great Britain, and by the aid of a large array of voluntary agencies.’27
Posters were developed using a wide range of formats and variety of psychological techniques to ensure their messages, both in letterpress and pictorial formats, were looked at, remembered and acted upon. Some posters forcefully projected imagery and words of demonisation, emasculation and emotional bribery. Happy, laughing, smiling and apparently fully satisfied soldiers were featured to entice new recruits.
Animals, children and women featured in designs to encourage men to enlist – notably in Arthur Wardle’s THE EMPIRE NEEDS MEN! AUSTRALIA, CANADA, INDIA, NEW ZEALAND ALL ANSWER THE CALL. HELPED BY THE YOUNG LIONS THE OLD LION DEFIES HIS FOES. ENLIST NOW. The technique is also used in Savile Lumley’s DADDY, WHAT DID YOU DO IN THE GREAT WAR? as well as in E.J. Kealey’s design declaring WOMEN OF BRITAIN SAY “GO!” Also, idyllic scenes of rural Britain, the homes of country and city folk as well as historic buildings were contrasted with both real and imagined images of devastation and ruins resulting from German bombing.
Poster using children as emotional bribery (Priv.)
‘Women Of Britain Say – “GO!”’ (Priv.)
Even by modern standards the logistics were challenging and the statistics astonishing. The PRC records stated that ‘From start to finish, the Sub-Department has printed and circulated 12,435,500 posters and taxi and tram slips; 450,000 window cards; 5,500,000 pamphlets; 34,125,000 leaflets and 1,750,000 miscellaneous productions. The quantity so produced reached the remarkable aggregate of 54,260,500 copies.’ The cost of producing these copies was £40,489, according to PRC accounts. In addition, ‘special attention was devoted to the local needs of London, Wales, Scotland and Ireland; and a number of posters and leaflets were issued in the Welsh language.’28 The PRC records reveal that there was expenditure in terms of advertising, paper, printing, transportation and posting of the posters, although the government was eager to capitalise on free poster sites as far as possible. Davray revealed the impact in London of the PRC recruitment posters and also those produced by the Central London Recruiting Depot. He observed the wide range of formats, shapes and sizes of the posters that were utilised individually and collectively for maximum impact and effect: ‘A complete organisation for publicity and billsticking has been evolved; the bills are distributed and pasted up in millions. They are of all shapes and sizes – handbills, demy bills, long horizontal bands, narrow placards, and panels several yards high.’
Welsh language poster (Priv.)
Rare Irish adaptation of Leete’s design (NLI)
He continued: ‘They are of the most varied descriptions, and it would need a volume at least to describe them all. We will merely describe a few of the most characteristic. A frame of red, white and blue, the royal arms with the French mottoes: “Dieu et mon droit” and “Honi soit qui mal y pense” between the initials “G.R.”; below, in blue letters, a statement, signed by the King, to the effect that: We are fighting for a noble purpose, and we will not lay down our arms until that purpose has been achieved – followed by this appeal in capital letters: “Men of the Empire. To arms!” and, under a blue line, in blue letters: “God save the King!”… A little further on, a facsimile of the seals and signatures appended to the treaty of 1839 which guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium is accompanied by this commentary: “Germany has trampled under foot the treaty which she had signed. Will Britons stand on one side while Germany destroys an innocent nation?”’
Davray proceeded to describe larger posters: ‘On the Corinthian portico of the Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor, an inscription in enormous letters on two immense posters reminds the crowd which, from morning to evening surges in front of the Royal Exchange and the Bank that the country is fighting for its independence.’
And provide details of further posters: ‘On the bridge at Ludgate Hill is displayed the following appeal: “The Empire is at stake. Rally round the flag”; and, as you walk down Fleet Street, the home of the Press and more crowded than the Rue Montmartre, or as you come out of St. Paul’s Cathedral, or as you come from Blackfriars and the right bank of the river, or by Farringdon Street from Holborn or the great provision markets, this legend meets your eye and forces itself upon your attention. In the West End it is the same thing as in the City. On the fronts of the great hotels, from top to bottom, inscriptions on calico, strongly framed, repeat, in letters a yard high, that England is counting on the support of all her children.’
Britain benefitted from having the most advanced advertising industry outside of the USA. In 1914, ‘the advertising industry was remarkably large and buoyantly confident. Annual expenditure on advertising approached £100 million… about half this huge budget, perhaps £40–£50 million, was spent placing advertisements in newspapers and magazines, and guaranteed the livelihood of some 240 general advertising agencies in London alone.’29
The advertisers were used to competing for attention outdoors and within spacious interiors. In incremental order, their sizes ranged from 4-sheet (40 x 60 inches) to 48-sheet (120 x 240 inches). Additional standard sizes now include 64-sheet and 96-sheet posters, and larger sizes of various formats were used during the war years. At the other end of the scale, many of the PRC posters measured only 30 x 20 inches, and so this meant that PRC designs (and privately-printed posters too) had to be grouped together to obtain eye-catching effects, especially in outdoor settings. However, the smaller poster sizes did work well in other public settings and spaces such as clubs, hotels, pubs, restaurants and shops.
Poster appealing to ‘the crowd’ (Priv.)
QMAAC recruitment poster (IWM)
In order to display the posters, more and more women were encouraged to take the place of men who had either volunteered or were conscripted in 1916. W.E.D. Allen recorded the experiences of ‘one of the first of these adventuresses, who went into billposting even before the passing of the Conscription Act’. She wrote: ‘Most people think billposting a queer job for a woman, but I was tired of being in a corset factory and wanted outdoor work… I had to practise a long time before I could use a paste brush and post a bill properly. A poster that is covered with paste is as bad as sticky fly-paper to get mixed up with. Then I had to learn the different kinds of posters received from the printers, and how to sort and fold them, and the way to load a van.’
She continued: ‘I had two months’ training before going my first round without a man to superintend, but we girls have now been going out by ourselves for about six weeks. We go in motor or horse vans in parties of three – one to drive and two to post. Handling the ladders is rather awkward, but specially light ones are given to us. Special uniforms – dark overalls, divided skirts, and black water-proof sou’wester hats – are provided so I am all right for climbing ladders, and I have worked so high as twenty feet up. It was rather giddy work at first, but luckily I have not dropped a paste pot on anybody’s head yet. I have been chaffed and laughed at a good deal, but have to put up with that, though I sometimes feel I should like to give those who jeer a dab with the paste brush. I am only keeping things going until the war is over, and am not doing any man out of a job, so I get on very well with the men billposters. We women can post what is called a 32-sheet bill, that is about ten feet by thirteen feet, made up of smaller sheets.’
Girl putting up posters (IWM)
A black and white photograph by Horace Nicholls, who worked for the government during World War I in the Imperial War Museum, depicted a girl in 1918 from the Norfolk town of Thetford up a ladder at work with brush– and past
e, continuing her father’s work as Official Bill Poster and Town Crier. One of the posters in the photograph promotes Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps. It depicts a woman with outstretched arm and pointing finger, a rare adaptation of Leete’s cartoon design.
The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was formed in January 1917 and recruited the first women into the British Army to serve in a non-nursing capacity. The WAAC provided catering, storekeeping, vehicle maintenance and clerical duties for the British Army, freeing more men to take up combat roles. In 1918, Queen Mary became patron and the corps was renamed Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps. Over 57,000 women enrolled in the WAAC / QMAAC during World War I and though they were not given full military status, the women often worked close to the frontline. Three military medals were awarded to members for gallantry. The QMAAC was eventually disbanded in September 1921.
Lucy Kemp-Welch’s ‘Forward’ (NAM)
In terms of how the vast body of material, in particular posters, was commissioned and created, the PRC revealed that it was ‘inundated by suggestions and designs from various printing firms (who usually engaged the services of their in-house artists) and from individuals and each was carefully considered. A few ideas were accepted outright, while several were utilised with modification either of the details in drawing, colouring or wording. Many were created by the Committee itself.’ Also, ‘Realising that the struggle would be a long and stern one, the aim of the Department throughout was to issue posters that would stimulate and not depress. It took its key note from the splendid spirit of the soldiers themselves and it set its face resolutely against depicting scenes of a gruesome character.’30