Poster, 'Thank God And the Sailors For My Good Breakfast', Printed by Banks Ltd., 1917

Poster with view of shipyard, where a large ship is being built. A circular inset shows a breakfast scene with a father, children and mother slicing a loaf of bread. Printed in black and buff. Text in black.

This poster was issued during the First World War (1914-18), possibly by the Ministry of Food, at the time when the British Navy was defying a German blockade on British shipping and food supplies. As attacks by the U-boats increased, grain provisions dwindled alarmingly.

Through the slogan, and a telling juxtaposition of imagery, the secure domesticity of the family at breakfast - with mother slicing the precious loaf of bread - is shown to be dependent on the heroic efforts of the Merchant Navy and the country's ship-building programme. Although strongly idealised, especially the Gibson-girl-like mother, the breakfast scene is intended to represent a working class household.

[Margaret Timmers, 'British Design at Home', p.104]

E.403-1982