British Military Recruitment Poster, WW1

Rugby Union Footballers are Doing Their Duty -- over 90% have enlisted. British Athletes! Will you follow this glorious example? Chromolithograph recruitment poster, published by the Publicity Department, Central London Recruiting Depot, printed by Johnson, Riddle and Company, London, 1915. Showing a rugby footballer in sports kit holding ball, and the same man in British Army uniform holding a rifle. The notion that war was a sporting contest writ large was commonly expressed during World War One and thousands of men enlisted to play the greater game'. Like their counterparts in cricket and football, rugby players flocked to the colours. Twenty-seven players who had been capped for England were killed in the conflict

Enlist Enlisted Example Follow Footballer Footballers Glorious Join Recruiting Riddle

Features In These Collections

> Contributors > NAM