'Come Along, Boys! Enlist To-day'

Cigarette card after a poster published by W D and H O Wills, from a series of 12 cards reproducing recruiting posters associated with the British Army, World War One (1914-1918), 1915 (c).

The original poster was designed by William H Caffyn, published by Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, as Poster No 22, and printed by Haycock-Cadle Company, 1915.

This poster depicts a marching British soldier smoking a pipe and is captioned: "'The moment the order came to go forward, there were smiling faces everywhere'. (Extract from letter written in the trenches of the Aisne by General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien)."

By the end of 1915 the number of new recruits was falling. Stories of the horrors soldiers were facing discouraged men from enlisting. Recruiters therefore made a last effort to avoid instituting conscription. Posters like this attempted to put a positive spin on life at the front. The demand was still not met, and the Military Services Act was passed in January 1916 to introduce conscription.