Keep it under your hat! poster

This simple but clever poster is typical of the work of British illustrator John Gilroy (1898–1985). A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, he was employed by the Ministry of Information during the Second World War (1939-45) and worked on campaigns such as Keep it under your hat, Make-do-and-mend, and We want your kitchen waste.

In this poster, he draws on the fact that everyone wore hats during this period: for fashion, for work, for protection, and for being decently dressed when out in public.

The poster was part of the ‘careless talk costs lives’ campaign which ran throughout much of the war. Such posters were imported by the New Zealand government and seen here in shop windows or in offices to remind people to be discreet when discussing military information in public.