Lord Kitchener

Part of the Mabey Collection

LORD KITCHENER SAYS ... ENLIST TODAY 1915

Not Known

Details

Dimension
52 X 76 CM
Media
LITHOGRAPH
Accession number
M/2

Summary

Field Marshall Hebert Horatio Kitchener. 1st Earl Kitchener is known for his imperial campaigns and later as central player in the First World War. He was appointed Secretary of State for War at the outbreak of hositilies in 1914 and he set about organising a recruitment drive of volunteers for the British Army. As range of posters in which he looked out with his finger pointing exhorted British ‘Your Country needs You’, the image has been copied and parodied ever since.

The image in this poster is taken from a photograph by Alexander Bassano. The text on the right reads
Men, materials & money are the immediate necessities. ... Does the call of duty find no response in you until reinforced - let us rather say superseded - by the call of compulsion?

was taken from a speech given by Kitchener at the Guildhall, July 9th 1915.