'Concitoyens', 1919

Typographical chromolithograph poster. Printed by Boland et Fils, 27, Rue des Clercs, Mons, 1919.

This Belgian poster is accompanied by text by Jean Lescarts, Mayor of Mons, encouraging the citizens of that town to celebrate the first anniversary of the Armistice.

The British Army had first gone into battle at Mons in August 1914 when General Smith-Dorrien's II Corps found itself squarely in the path of the German First Army as it advanced through Belgium. Remarkably, when the Armistice came into effect on 11 November 1918, the British were back at Mons following Field Marshal Haig's final offensive of the war, an advance along a 50 kilometre (30 mile) front along the Sambre.