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.

Date: 1915
Period: First World War
Made by: Parliamentary Recruiting Committee (United Kingdom), poster no. 135; printed by Roberts & Leete, London
Region: Western and Central Europe
Country: United Kingdom
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: Mixed
Regime: Asquith Government
Leader: Herbert Henry Asquith
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Recruit
Themes: War and the military, Home front
Event: World War I
Techniques: Testimonial
Regime: Asquith government
Leader: H. H. Asquith
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: Library of Congress, retrieved October 2, 2026
Rights: Public domain in the U.S. (published 1915, before 1931)
1915. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, World War I Posters collection. LOC rights advisory: 'No known restrictions on publication.'

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.