OPCVL: Give Us His Name Flyer

The Give Us is Name flyer has no listed creator, however I can infer that it was created by a person who was affiliated with the 255th battalion. Also, there was no specific date of publishing but I can infer that it was during the course of the first world war, so between 1914 and 1918. In addition, I can infer that this flyer was distributed in Toronto as the 255th battalion was recruiting from the Toronto area. This flyer is propaganda for the recruitment of new soldiers. Its purpose is to encourage and persuade people to turn in men who had voluntarily enlisted to join the war effort. However, the overlaying purpose of this was to gain recruits for the 255th battalion.

This flyer includes a form where one can write the personal information of the person being turned in, including his name, home and business address and occupation. The middle section of the flyer contains a propaganda message playing on the emotions of people who had loved ones on the Western Front. Also, the flyer contains the number and name of the regiment that is recruiting.

This source is valuable because it shows the willingness of military recruiters to use all possible tools at their disposal, including manipulating people based on their negative emotions to meet their targets. This source is also valuable because it shows the creative ways that Canada was recruiting soldiers, not only by persuading the men to join, but also persuading the others that it is an injustice to them because their family members are sacrificing themselves for their country while some men are coward and don’t want to put themselves at risk. It also shows how some people felt in the society of that time about men who did not enlist in the army but chose to stay at home.

The flyer has some limitation as its purpose is to persuade others to sell out these men, it doesn’t say anything about exceptions. For example, a man may not be physically or mentally able to fight in a war or might have another situation which requires their attention (i.e. young children, sick family member etc.). Moreover, the content of this flyer was quite general, so it was very hard to infer if there was a target audience for this flyer and if they were targeting a certain group of people for recruitment.