---
title: '''Back Room Boys'' They Also Serve - Boiler Maintenance'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-back-room-boys-boiler-maintenance-1939/
description: A London Transport staff poster in the 'Back Room Boys' series shows a woman in a brown coat holds a long tool at a boiler furnace.
section: Collection
---

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3. 'Back Room Boys' They Also Serve - Boiler Maintenance

[!['Back Room Boys' They Also Serve - Boiler Maintenance, 1939 UK poster: A London Transport staff poster in the 'Back Room](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-back-room-boys-boiler-maintenance-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-back-room-boys-boiler-maintenance-1939.jpg)

# 'Back Room Boys' They Also Serve - Boiler Maintenance

A London Transport staff poster in the 'Back Room Boys' series shows a woman in a brown coat holds a long tool at a boiler furnace, with a pencil drawing of a boiler house above, captioned 'BOILER MAINTENANCE' and 'They also serve'. The tell is the virtue phrase 'They also serve' applied to maintenance staff (glittering generalities) and the depiction of ordinary workers at their jobs (plain-folks); it names no enemy and gives no figures.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) [Plain folks](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/plain-folks/)

## Text on the object

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

```
'BACK ROOM BOYS'
BOILER MAINTENANCE
'THEY ALSO SERVE'
LONDON TRANSPORT
FRED TAYLOR
THE BAYNARD PRESS
```

[← Over 1,000,000 Tons of Axis Shipping Sunk in the North Sea and English Channel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-axis-shipping-sunk-north-sea-channel-1939/) ['Back Room Boys' They Also Serve - Cable Maintenance →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-back-room-boys-cable-maintenance-1939/)

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