---
title: The Prime Minister's Advice to the Young Unmarried Men and Pledge to Married Men
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/prime-minister-advice-unmarried-men-1915/
description: A text-only poster that sets a long passage from the Prime Minister's speech of 2 November 1915 under the heading 'The Prime Minister's advice', then…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![The Prime Minister's Advice to the Young Unmarried Men and Pledge to Married Men](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/prime-minister-advice-unmarried-men-1915.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/prime-minister-advice-unmarried-men-1915.jpg)

# The Prime Minister's Advice to the Young Unmarried Men and Pledge to Married Men

A text-only poster that sets a long passage from the Prime Minister's speech of 2 November 1915 under the heading 'The Prime Minister's advice', then addresses married men ('Enlist now') and single men ('Surely you will recognise the force of the Prime Minister's statement'). The named office-holder's own words are the whole argument, offered so that the vouching stands in for further checking.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
THE PRIME MINISTER'S
ADVICE TO THE YOUNG UNMARRIED MEN
and
PLEDGE TO MARRIED MEN

"I am told by Lord Derby and others that there is some doubt among married men who are now being asked to enlist whether, having enlisted, or promised to enlist, they may not be called upon to serve, while younger and unmarried men are holding back and not doing their duty. Let them at once disabuse themselves of that notion. So far as I am concerned, I should certainly say the obligation of the married man to serve ought not to be enforced or held to be binding upon him unless and until - I hope by voluntary effort, but if it be needed in the last resort by other means - the unmarried men are dealt with.

"I have far too much confidence in the patriotism and the public spirit of my fellow-countrymen to doubt for one moment that they are going to respond to that appeal - that the young men, the unmarried men with whom the promise of the future lies, are not going in this great emergency to shirk and to leave the fortunes of their country and the assertion of the greatest cause for which we have ever fought, to those who have given greater hostages to fortune and are least able to bear the brunt."
HOUSE OF COMMONS, NOVEMBER 2nd, 1915.

MARRIED MEN!
ENLIST NOW. YOU HAVE THE PRIME MINISTER'S PLEDGE THAT YOU WILL NOT BE CALLED UPON TO SERVE UNTIL THE YOUNG UNMARRIED MEN HAVE BEEN SUMMONED TO THE COLOURS.

SINGLE MEN!
SURELY YOU WILL RECOGNISE THE FORCE OF THE PRIME MINISTER'S STATEMENT AND ENLIST VOLUNTARILY. YOU CAN GO INTO YOUR PROPER GROUPS TILL YOU ARE WANTED.

[illegible - small imprint lines at foot]
```

Closing paragraphs checked against the Library of Congress catalogue transcription of the poster's text.

[← "Porte timbre de guerre des Alliés" poster stamp (Allied powers, 1914-1915)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/porte-timbre-de-guerre-des-allies-1915/) [Remember Belgium — Enlist To-Day →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/remember-belgium-1915/)

## Using the same techniques

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- [Seljuq gold dinar of Sanjar, dated 493 AH, with the Abbasid caliph named on one face](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/seljuq-gold-dinar-sanjar-caliph-name-1099/) (Great Seljuk Empire · 1099 · Testimonial)
- [J'Accuse...! Lettre au Président de la République (J'Accuse...! Letter to the President of the Republic), L'Aurore, 13 January 1898](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jaccuse-laurore-front-page-1898/) (France · Jan 13, 1898 · Testimonial). Content note: Newspaper page about a wrongful-conviction controversy; the letter text refers to a prisoner held in torture-like conditions on Devil's Island; no graphic imagery.
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- ["The War with Japan" (Puck cover, 23 October 1907)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/puck-the-war-with-japan-1907/) (United States · Oct 23, 1907 · Testimonial, Scapegoating)
- [Bande Mataram (Paris), memorial page to Madan Lal Dhingra, 17 August 1909](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bande-mataram-paris-dhingra-memorial-1909/) (France · Aug 17, 1909 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Indian Opinion (Phoenix, Natal), page 266: 'Natal Mercury's Comments' and 'The Durban Conference' during the coal-mine strike, 29 October 1913](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/indian-opinion-natal-mercury-durban-conference-1913/) (Union of South Africa · Oct 29, 1913 · Testimonial)
- ['Do your duty bravely. Fear God. Honour the King.' Lord Kitchener postcard (about 1914)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kitchener-duty-bravely-postcard/) (United Kingdom · 1914 · Testimonial, Transfer)