Poster, '1805 "England Expects" 1915'

A legacy of duty

This First World War poster was created by the British Parliamentary Recruiting Committee to encourage the enlistment of young men into the armed forces. The title references the oft-quoted 'England expects that every man will do his duty' signal sent by Admiral Horatio Nelson (the figure depicted) from his flagship HMS Victory prior to the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. The significance of Nelson's victory and death during the battle created a long legacy for the phrase and it is used here to emphasise that England's men are required to do their duty in the Great War, as they were in 1805, when they led England to victory against France and Spain.

By the second year of the First World War (1915), the British government was increasingly eager to recruit men for the Army. What was to have been a very short war had turned into a long struggle. Britain lacked a steady supply of trained reserves who were ready to fight and as a consequence published many patriotic posters such as this in an effort to continuously recruit new soldiers.

British and American Posters in New Zealand

This poster is part of a collection of First World War posters sent to New Zealand as examples of British wartime propaganda. From 1917-1919, the Dominion Museum (now Te Papa) collected such war material with the help of the New Zealand High Commissioner in London and the Department of Defence.

The museum intended to collect and display such objects in a planned national war museum in Wellington which never eventuated. Instead, the museum toured over 100 war posters around New Zealand in the early 1920s in the context of increasing commemoration of the war during peacetime. For many, the posters illustrated important aspects of the war and the history of New Zealand's part in the war. This commemorative function was far removed from their original function to encourage wartime contribution.