Description
Object description
whole: the title is positioned across the top in black. The main text, including a quotation, is arranged over the
remainder, also in black. All are set over a plain white background.
image: text only.
text: THE PRIME MINSTER'S ADIVE 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 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.
PUBLISHED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY RECRUITING COMMITTEE, LONDON. POSTER No. 135.
PRINTED BY ROBERTS AND LEETE LT.D. LONDON. WT. W. 12007/663.
Physical description
Parliamentary Recruiting Committee Poster No.135.
Wt.12007 - 663.
Label
Edward George Villiers Stanley (1865-1948) was a politically ambitious English aristocrat whose accession to the title
17th Earl of Derby, in 1908, enabled him to enter Britain's Parliament via the House of Lords.
Although Derby was a noted critic of the Liberal Government's pre–war social reforms, his opposition to conscription earned him a place in
Herbert Asquith's wartime coalition. As Minister of Recruitment he devised the 'Derby Scheme', which encouraged men to register voluntarily
for military service, only to be called-up when necessary. As further incentive it was guaranteed that married men would not be enlisted
until all single men had been mobilized.
Despite much publicity the Scheme only secured 350,000 volunteers and was abandoned with the passing of the Military Service Act in January
1916, which introduced conscription.
