Think! Are you content for him to fight for you?

Place Oceania: Australia, Queensland
Accession Number ARTV00032
Collection type Art
Measurement Overall: 51 x 77.5 cm
Object type Poster
Physical description chromolithograph on paper
Maker Oakley, Harry Lawrence
Unknown
Queensland Recruiting Committee
H. J Diddams & Co. Brisbane
Place made Australia: Queensland, Brisbane
Date made 1915
Conflict First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

First World War poster by acclaimed British silhouette artist, Harry Oakley. At the right of the poster, a man in silhouette is carrying his rifle and bayonet at the ready. Behind him, depicted in grey silhouette, are his comrades. This Australian version of the poster does not bear the artist's signature on the stone, whereas the British one does. Australian First World War recruitment poster. Appeals to a patriotic sense of honour to help fight the war and encourages the viewer to 'Join To-day'. Recruitment posters were in prolific supply in Australia throughout the First World War. Australia relied solely on voluntary recruits to serve in the AIF. Compulsory military service, or conscription, for eligible men was in force in Australia from 1911, however, these forces were for home defence and could not be used to serve in a war overseas. Following the initial rush of men to recruit in 1914, enrolments dropped, leaving federal and state governments to devise sophisticated campaigns to boost numbers.