Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?

Print shows a father in the comfort of his postwar home, being asked by his children, "Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?" Father looks pensively to the distance while his daughter sits on his lap, and his son plays with toy soldiers at his feet.

  • OCLC #: 1066134964
  • Physical Location: Special Collections — Hunter — PRINT 04427
  • Personal Collection:
    • WWI Hunter Collection
  • Production, Publication, Distribution, Manufacture, and Copyright Notice: [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], [not before 1915]
  • Physical Description: 1 print : color ; 23 x 15 cm
  • General Notes:
    • Print is a reproduction of the famous 1915 British propaganda/recruitment poster "Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War." It is most likely taken from a magazine.
    • The print has no publication date but could not have been published before the original poster in 1915.
    • Original poster was designed and printed by Johnson, Riddle & Co. Ltd. London S.E. The artist was Savile Lumley. It was published by the Parliamentary Recruiting Commission, London.
    • Until conscription was introduced in 1916, recruitment posters were an essential element in attracting young men to the armed forces during the 'Great War' of 1914-1918. Savile Lumley's poster has become one of the best known because of its tone of emotional blackmail. The idea was actually that of a printer, Arthur Gunn, who is reported to have imagined himself as the father in question. In fact, after having a sketch of the scene made up by Lumley in 1915, Gunn joined the Westminster Volunteers.
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