Poster, 'Why More Men Are Needed'

This text-heavy British First World War poster is typical of the early posters printed by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee. It quotes Prime Minister Herbert Asquith's speech at Guildhall on 9 November 1914 where he declared his war aims.

It quickly became clear in the early months of the war that many more men were needed to enlist to fight against Germany. One of the more powerful inducements for men to sign up was to invoke the vulnerability and sufferings of Belgium and France, which played to a sense of justice and fair play. Heroic language was used to conjur up a romantic past of chivalry ('we shall not sheathe the sword until Belgium recovers all').