Britain entered the war on 4 August 1914, the possessor of a small professional army and with no policy on conscription. There was no fully developed British government plan for propaganda or the manipulation of public opinion but Britain needed to find many more men who would be willing to train to be soldiers and fight in the war campaign. Army recruiting drives, posters, newspaper proclamations and claims of German atrocities were the product of a complex mix of spontaneous action, national and local politics and business initiatives.

The British government acted quickly to bring out a series of recruitment posters urging men to sign up. Other posters were produced promoting wartime economy, sometimes urging people to provide continuing support for government policy, usually by whipping up indignation against alleged enemy outrages.
Wartime posters were only one aspect of the battle for the hearts and minds of the British public during the Great War. Postcards provided a powerful means of propaganda through caricature and carefully targeted photo images.

The postcard provides us with exceptional documentation of the period — more than 100,000 postcards were printed during World War 1. They were the only medium of visual communication accessible to everyone at the time. Postcards fell into a number of themed categories.