The History of: Keep Calm and Carry On

On the eve of World War II sometime in August 1939 the Ministry of Information in the British Government printed 2.5 million Keep Calm and Carry On posters.  The aim of this simple five-word statement was to convey to the country a message of reassurance for the troubled times that lay ahead.  The hope was that upon seeing them, the British people would feel a sense of increased morale.  They were supposed to represent a clear and direct message from the King to his public - the look and feel of any communication from the Ministry of Information was always to be the same - clean, simple and impactful.  Unfortunately, these posters were never used and were subsequently destroyed at the end of the war.  Some 55 years later, a second hand book dealer in the North of England came across a copy of the poster in a box of books bought at an auction.  That discovery led to the re-launch of the Keep Calm and Carry On message which has remained if not increased in popularity into the 21st century!