'If He Should Fall is Your Blood There to Save Him? The Army Blood Transfusion Service Needs Blood Donors', 1943

Lithograph poster designed by Abram Games, printed by Field and Sons Limited, Bradford, for HM Stationery Office, 1943.

In order to help the war effort, a campaign called 'Plasma for Britain' was established to encourage blood donation in Britain and the United States of America. This poster shows a glass blood flask - polyethylene blood bags were not adopted in Britain until the 1970s.

The Army Blood Transfusion Service (ABTS) and the Army Blood Supply Depot were established in 1939. Together they formed the first military transfusion service in the world. Alongside the emergency services, the ABTS also established several regional blood transfusion centres. Thousands of civilians donated blood at these centres and helped save the lives of wounded military personnel.

From a collection of 45 posters from World War Two (1939-1945).