LONDON.- A set of over 30 unused First World War recruitment posters in mint condition is to be sold at Bonhams First World War Centenary Sale in London on 1 October, Offered in eleven lots it has a combined estimate of £5,000-7,000.

At the onset of the First World War there was a rush of volunteers to sign up and fight but the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) which was sent to France in August 1914 was largely composed of regular soldiers. The French, German and Russian armies, by contrast, relied heavily on conscripts. By the end of 1914 the heavily outnumbered BEF had effectively been wiped out, a new command structure was imposed on the army and the Government stepped up its recruitment drive for volunteers.

Eye catching posters were a popular way for the authorities to exert pressure on the Home Front. The messages were calculated either to cajole or to shame young men into signing up by, on the one hand, exhorting them to ‘go’ or, on the other, using images of soldiers already at the front to urge them to ‘come’.

‘Go! It’s your Duty Lad. Join today’ (£400-600) shows a middle aged woman gesticulating to a young man in a suit slouching with his hands in his pockets. Another poster superimposes a photograph of a saluting Tommy on a map of southern Britain and Northern France with the legend ‘Boys. Come over here, you’re wanted.’ (£400-600).

A stark poster showing the silhouette of a soldier with a rifle simply says “Think! Are you content for him to fight for YOU? Won’t you do your bit? We shall win but YOU must help. JOIN TO-DAY.’ (£400-600)

In a variation on the same theme, some of the government’s propaganda was specifically targeted at women. One of the posters is an appeal ‘To The Women of Britain’ (£400-600). It plays heavily on fears of a German invasion but also on the shame their men folk would feel after the war if they had been prevented from doing their bit by their wives and mothers.

These posters date from 1915 and were sent by the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee to the High Court Judge, Sir Frank Mellor to help him organise a recruitment drive in Kensington, London. For some reason the posters were never distributed and they remain in their original envelopes in excellent condition.

Signing up remained voluntary until 1916 when conscription was introduced by the Military Service Act, 1916 which also reclassified those who had volunteered to date as professional soldiers.

Bonhams Head of Books, Matthew Haley said, “Most people are familiar with the famous Lord Kitchener recruitment poster ‘Your Country Needs You’ but, as this selection of material demonstrates, the Government and Army exerted all kinds of moral pressures to encourage men to volunteer. They are also worth considering as pieces of graphic design in their own right and how - as often happens in war time - necessity stimulated invention.”