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On August 4, 1914, Great Britain declared war on Germany. Immediately after this declaration, the British government set up the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee with the clear purpose of encouraging the young men of Britain to join into the ranks of the services.

The Parliamentary Recruiting Committee was a cross-party organisation chaired by the Prime Minister. It used the infrastructure of the British political parties in parliamentary districts to support recruitment for the armed forces.

Party activists were called upon to distribute leaflets and organise rallies, processions and public meetings. The committee commissioned some 200 posters, which were mostly published before the introduction of conscription.

One of the more well-known posters was produced by E.J. Kealey, a famous illustrator. It shows two women and a child looking out of a window as soldiers march away. I assume the idea behind this poster was that men would see this poster and feel the urge to protect the women and children.

There is a link with Malta in this poster: the red-haired lady lived for many years, died and is buried in Malta. Her name was Grace (but known to all as Topsie) Clift. She was married to Group Captain Victor ‘Laddie’ Clift and they lived in Marsascala.

The copy of the poster reproduced here is taken from a magazine and is inscribed in ink: “To Virrie from Topsie with love 1964”. Virrie is my mother and she and my father, Maurice, were very good friends of the Clifts, who adopted us as their family. Topsie also wrote the date “1913”, which seems to indicate that she posed for this poster well before the outbreak of war in 1914.

Topsie had told my mother that the woman on the right was her servant and the boy was her son Teddy, who would later join the French resistance and was executed by the Nazis in World War II.

Very little is known about Topsie, except that she was born in Paris, brought up in a Catholic orphanage and had a rather adventurous life. Topsie was involved in the art scene, since at one time she used to paint theatre scenery, so she may have known Kealy through such a connection.

She met Laddie in Malta and they married in Tunisia, as civil marriage did not then exist in Malta. They honeymooned at the Melita Hotel in Attard.

Topsie Clift passed away aged 80 in 1966, after having reconciled herself with her Catholic faith thanks to a French-speaking priest whom my parents knew, Dun Ġużepp Zerafa from Paola.