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Why were the women giving young men white feathers

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Recruitment tactics in WW1 | History - I Was There: The Great War Interviews

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In August 1914, Admiral Charles Penrose Fitzgerald founded the Order of the White Feather. He got thirty women in Folkestone to give out white feathers to any men not in uniform. The concept was based on an old story that a cockerel with a white feather in its tail is a coward.

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Is this an effective poster in your opinion? Why?

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Is this an effective poster in your opinion? Why?

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"Suddenly producing a large white feather, she jabbed it into his waistcoat. And in another tone, fierce and scornful she added..... "You coward, why don't you enlist?"

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"Suddenly producing a large white feather, she jabbed it into his waistcoat. And in another tone, fierce and scornful she added..... "You coward, why don't you enlist?"

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How do you think the men felt when they received the white feather?

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Go onto the following website which shows recruitment posters for World War 1. Print out your favourite and glue into your book.

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[Richard Slocombe, Senior Curator of Art, IWM] Propaganda was very much in its formative stages of development; it was the concept of government's appealing to a mass audience. It was a completely new phenomenon. Certainly, at the beginning of the war, there was a - it was a bit amateurish, a bit piecemeal. And it was particularly say, in the early recruitment campaigns and things like that it, it wasn't entirely successful - it did rely on the inherent patriotism of the British public.

What they did in the end was get people who knew what they were talking about, and these were people like newspaper proprietors like Lord Northcliffe and Lord Beaverbrook. Who their papers like the Daily Mail, such like The Daily Express, were used to communicating with a mass audience basically. So, whereas the British propaganda effort, it's begun the war whereby employing civil servants, politicians. They eventually, the penny dropped, and they began to employ the people, the professionals shall we say - people who knew what they were talking about.

Amongst countries like Canada, Australia and New Zealand and other countries in Empire. There was a real sort of belief in the empire, in Britain as a nation, as a society, a kind of figurehead. And they were, you know, they were motivated out of a sense of loyalty. The war was also being presented as a conflict to fight for basic freedoms and the threat of militarism and despotism that was, that was Germany basically. So, there was a sense, that there was a certain belief, ideals, hard-won freedoms that were at stake. Not just in Europe but across the world, this has felt that there was a real threat to internationally -to freedom and democracy and things like that. So, they joined up because of that - so there was, you know, there was a sense of loyalty to the crown and to the Empire. But also, there was this feeling that there were certain, you know, freedoms that were at stake.

Conscription was introduced at the end of 1915, the beginning of 1916. Basically, because the war had continued for much longer than anyone had anticipated. A lot of people had thought that this was going to be quite a short war. What was predicted by some of the leaders in Britain; chiefly Lord Kitchener who was it was charge of raising that a mass army; was that we needed to have a big army, a big standing army like France and like Germany. In order to contribute and to prevail in this war basically.

Britain was always considered as itself as essentially a naval power and for that reason it always kept a small, highly professional regular Army which was used - mainly to settle colonial disputes and things like that. So, it wasn't anything like the size it needed to be, in order to engage a major power like Germany. So, they initially - there was a call for voluntary enlistment, which was enthusiastically taken up by the British male population. But as the war wore on and horrendous sort of losses, that were being endured by Britain and the other countries, that flow of volunteers began to tail off basically. And conscription was introduced basically to maintain Britain's mass army. Basically, so it could effectively wage war against Germany and the central powers.

This poster just announces the military service act in 1916 which introduced conscription. I mean there's no visual appeal about this poster; there's no exciting images, there's no appeals to masculinity, there's no appeal to avenge sinking liners. There's no appeals to avenge atrocities as committed by the Germans in Belgium. It's telling you about a new bit of legislation, a new law which says - everyone within a certain age bracket, will now be compelled to join the British war effort i.e., the Army. And it just basically sets out the facts of this legislation and when it comes into force: so, I've got Thursday March the 2nd 1916.

In Australia and places like Canada and things - they were very reluctant to introduce conscription. They didn't like the idea that they were compelled to fight. So, the countries that did introduce, that like Canada, that did introduce it very late on in the war - and some never did at all - but it seemed to go against, you know, a notion of freedom of choice. And so you know it was a very unpopular, and remained unpopular, right throughout the war. And particularly during elections and at the end of the war and things - the ending of conscription was considered a vote winner. Basically, that it was so unpopular it was considered as something that would win votes and would be popular amongst the population.

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Use these sources to discover more about First World War Recruitment Posters. For ideas to help you use these sources, take a look at our Suggested Activities.

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Is this an effective poster in your opinion? Why?

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Is this an effective poster in your opinion? Why?

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Poster issued in 1915 by the British Parliamentary Recruiting Committee.