Carry Your Identity Card Always
Two outstretched hands, one blue and one grey, pass a National Registration Identity Card bearing the royal arms, under the headline 'Carry your identity card always'. The text states that police or military may demand it at any time and that the holder must not alter it; the royal arms on the card lend state authority to the instruction (transfer, a weak fit), otherwise it is a plain compliance notice.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Ministry of Health (issuer, per imprint); printed for H.M. Stationery Office by St. Michael's Press Ltd, London
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Security and surveillance, Home front
- Event
- World War II
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (UK Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired before 1996; no URAA restoration)
UK government poster printed for H.M. Stationery Office; Ministry of Health (issuer, per imprint); printed for H.M. Stationery Office by St. Michael's Press Ltd, London. Via US National Archives (NAID 44266360, 44-PF-132).
Text on the object
CARRY YOUR IDENTITY CARD ALWAYS YOU MAY BE ASKED FOR IT AT ANY TIME TO PROVE TO THE POLICE OR MILITARY WHO YOU ARE & WHERE YOU LIVE Your card must bear your usual address. If you move go to the National Registration Office and have the address altered there. You must not alter the address yourself or anything else on your card. ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH PRINTED FOR H.M STATIONERY OFFICE BY ST MICHAEL'S PRESS LTD LONDON. 51-9542.
