Posters, Propaganda and the Military: A Print History

One image did more to define what a recruitment poster looks like than almost anything before or since — and it's a reminder that print has been military hardware in its own right for over two centuries.

Maps First

Long before recruitment posters, the military drove one of Britain's most important printing projects: the Ordnance Survey, which grew out of military mapping needs from the 18th century onwards. Accurate printed maps were, quite literally, strategic assets.

The Poster That Defined a Genre

On 5 September 1914, an illustration by the artist Alfred Leete appeared on the cover of the magazine London Opinion: Lord Kitchener, moustached and stern, pointing directly at the viewer. It was quickly adapted into a recruitment poster, and its direct-address format, a figure pointing straight out of the page, became the template that recruitment and propaganda posters the world over would copy for the rest of the century. The original poster print run was modest, in the region of 10,000 copies, but its influence was completely disproportionate to that number.

Print at Wartime Scale

Between 1914 and 1916, the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee produced roughly 12.5 million individual poster copies across 164 separate typescript and lithographic designs — an enormous logistical print operation, run in the middle of a war, using the print technology of the day: letterpress and lithography.

Beyond Posters

Military print wasn't limited to recruitment. Field manuals, forces' newspapers for troop morale, and psychological-operations leaflets dropped over enemy lines all featured across both World Wars — print doing the job of information, morale and persuasion, wherever it was needed.

Today: Remembrance and Community Print

Modern military-connected print is less about propaganda and more about remembrance and community: poppy appeal posters, regimental association banners, veterans' charity fundraising material, and printed programmes for remembrance events.

Where This Connects to What We Print

Remembrance events, veterans' associations and military charities still need exactly this kind of printed material — banners, posters and printed programmes through our large format & signage service, and fundraiser t-shirts through our charity & fundraising printing page.

Frequently asked questions

Who created the famous Kitchener recruitment poster?

The artist Alfred Leete, whose illustration first appeared as a London Opinion magazine cover on 5 September 1914 before being adapted into a recruitment poster.

How many WWI recruitment posters were printed?

The Parliamentary Recruiting Committee produced roughly 12.5 million copies across 164 designs between 1914 and 1916; figures for individual designs vary between sources.

What military print exists today?

Remembrance event material, regimental and veterans' association banners, and military charity fundraising print are the modern continuation of military printing.

Browse our large format & signage printing page, or see the History of the Printing Press for the wider story.

A Map Born of a Rebellion

The military roots of British printing go back further than the recruitment poster. After the Jacobite rising of 1745, the army realised it had no good map of the Scottish Highlands. In 1747 David Watson proposed a survey, and a military survey was commissioned under the Duke of Cumberland. Serious work on a national survey began in 1790 under William Roy, when the Board of Ordnance started surveying England's south coast, and the Ordnance Survey is dated to 1791. The first one-inch-to-the-mile map, of Kent, appeared in 1801. The name still carries the original purpose, since "ordnance" refers to military supplies and artillery.

Looking Closer at the Kitchener Poster

The famous pointing figure has a more tangled story than the legend suggests. Alfred Leete, an illustrator working for an advertising firm, drew it for the cover of London Opinion, a penny weekly with a circulation of around 300,000, dated 5 September 1914. The magazine sold postcard-sized copies, and the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee later obtained permission to use the design in poster form. Different printers produced different versions, and one printed by David Allen and Sons in November carried the words "Your Country Needs You" but was not an official committee publication. The Imperial War Museum holds Leete's original artwork, and only a small number of the original posters are known to survive.

Some historians have argued that the poster's fame was built partly by later postwar advertising. That is a useful caution for anyone researching print history: a famous image is not always the one that did the most work at the time. Where sources differ, treat any single number or claim with care.

Keep Calm and Carry On: A Poster That Was Never Shown

In 1939 the Ministry of Information designed a poster for use if war disrupted normal life. Designs were drawn up between 27 June and 6 July 1939, and printing began on 23 August 1939. Almost 2,500,000 copies were printed. The poster was held in reserve and was not sanctioned for general display, and the stock was pulped in April 1940. Only rare, unauthorised displays are recorded. A copy was rediscovered in 2000 at Barter Books in Alnwick. Its crown, hand-drawn lettering and plain wording gave it a reassuring tone, and the layout has since been imitated widely on gifts and clothing.

It is a reminder that print on a shelf does nothing. The poster's current fame is the result of a second life, not the first.

The Poppy: A Printed Symbol Becomes a Ritual

The first British Poppy Day was held on 11 November 1921. The poem "In Flanders Fields" was written in 1915 and published in Punch that December, and campaigners in the United States and France helped turn the poppy into a fundraising symbol. Madame Guerin, who organised poppy days in France, paid for the first British poppies herself and the Legion reimbursed her afterwards. The black centre of the British poppy was marked "Haig Fund" until 1994, when it was changed to "Poppy Appeal". Each year the appeal still relies on posters, collecting tins, programmes and window signs, as well as the poppy itself.

What Remembrance and Veterans' Groups Print Today

Many of the printed items now associated with the services are made by volunteers for a few hundred people rather than for a nation. A typical list looks like this:

Programmes, order-of-service sheets and name lists for a local remembrance service.
Banners and signs for a branch meeting, a parade or a coffee morning.
Posters for a fundraising evening, a quiz or a memorial walk.
T-shirts or hoodies for a sponsored walk, run or ride, with a charity name and a route or date on the back.
Flyers for open days and community events.

If you are organising something like this, our charity fundraising T-shirt guide covers the clothing side, and the flags, banners and display stands guide covers the large format side. We do not have any relationship with any armed forces body, charity or association, and the examples above are general.

Design Tips from a Century of Posters

The posters that last share a handful of habits, and they still apply to a banner for a village hall:

1. One image and one message. The Leete design works because the eye is led to a single point.

2. Direct address. A line that speaks to the viewer in plain words ("you", "your") is more compelling than a general statement.

3. High contrast. Dark text on a light ground, or light on dark, read at a distance.

4. Space around the text. A crowded poster is passed by.

5. A clear next step, such as a date, a place and a phone number or web address.

Respectful Handling of Remembrance Themes

Remembrance material is personal to many people, so a few cautions help:

Check names, ranks and dates with a family or an organiser, and keep a note of who approved the wording.
Use symbols with care. The Royal British Legion runs the Poppy Appeal, so avoid implying that your own event is run or endorsed by the Legion unless it really is.
Avoid humorous treatments of casualties, units or conflicts unless you are certain of the audience.
Proof everything twice. Typos on a memorial sign stay in people's memories.

When you request a quote, tell us the date of the service or event, and order early.