Let There Not Be a Man or a Woman Among Us Who... (The Prime Minister, May 4th 1915)
A text-only poster carries a statement signed 'The Prime Minister', dated May 4th 1915, asking every man and woman to be able to say after the war 'I was not idle'. It frames the war as 'the greatest task' in the 'storied annals' of the country, using elevated virtue language, and asks for no specific action.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- May 4, 1915
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, London (Poster No. 98); message signed by the Prime Minister; printed by Roberts & Leete Ltd, London
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Asquith Government
- Leader
- Herbert Henry Asquith
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front
- Event
- World War I
- Regime
- Asquith government
- Leader
- H. H. Asquith
- 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 (published in the UK in 1915; UK copyright expired; US public domain as a pre-1931 publication)
Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, London, 1915; printed by Roberts & Leete Ltd. National Archives and Records Administration, NAID 44266752 (44-PF-271).
Text on the object
Let there not be a man or a woman among us who, when the war is over, will not then be able to say: "I was not idle. "I took such part as I could in the greatest task which, in all the storied annals of our country, has ever fallen to the lot of Great Britain to achieve". THE PRIME MINISTER. May 4th 1915. PUBLISHED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY RECRUITING COMMITTEE, LONDON.- POSTER Nº 98. PRINTED BY ROBERTS & LEETE LTD LONDON. W. 2171/439.
