Britishers You're Needed

This 1917 recruiting poster by artist Lloyd Myers visualizes trans-Atlantic solidarity through the powerful image of two men—a British soldier standing on France and a civilian on the United States—shaking hands across the ocean on a globe, with the appeal "Britishers You're Needed Come Across Now." Produced as a color lithograph measuring 104 x 71 cm with Albert Frank & Co. of New York serving as agents, the poster represents the British and Canadian Recruiting Mission's efforts to persuade British expatriates living in America to return home and enlist. By 1917, Britain faced severe manpower shortages after three years of industrial-scale slaughter had consumed volunteer forces and early conscript classes, making every potential recruit valuable regardless of location.

The poster's emphasis on personal obligation across geographical distance reflects the British Empire's reliance on ethnic and cultural ties to mobilize populations dispersed globally. The handshake metaphor suggested that British men in America, though physically distant from the battlefield, remained morally connected to the conflict and shared responsibility for defending the Empire alongside those already serving in France. The recruiting mission's presence in neutral America (before U.S. entry in April 1917) created diplomatic complications, as Britain sought American acquiescence while technically violating neutrality laws against foreign military recruitment on U.S. soil. This poster documents the transnational dimension of World War I recruitment, when nations appealed to diaspora populations to return and serve, often with limited success as expatriates who had deliberately left their homelands proved less susceptible to patriotic appeals than residents who remained embedded in communities where social pressure enforced military service as masculine obligation and civic duty.