KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON

Keep Calm and Carry On was intended to be displayed to the public in order to strengthen morale in the event of a wartime disaster, such as mass bombings of major cities using high explosives and poison gas, which was widely expected within hours of an outbreak of war. As their display was not deemed necessary, most of the posters were destroyed and very few survive today. This is a rare portrait example.

In recent times, the rediscovery of one of these posters in a book store in Northumberland has created a global phenomenon of modernisation and commercialisation of the design and the phrase.