Keep Calm and Carry on

The Second World War officially started with the German invasion of Poland on the 1st of September, 1939. Two days later, United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany.

It was an uncertain year and the population lived under the threat of impending invasion. To maintain the morale, the British government designed, from the 27th of June to the 6th of July, three posters with a very simply style. The symbolic crown of King George VI, an effective font and a powerful slogan. 

Two of them were produced by His Majesty’s Stationery Office and posted in shop windows, public transport and notice boards across all Britain.

The third one was meant to be used only if United Kingdom would have been invaded by the Nazis. The incursion never happened and the Government kept the two-and-a-half million copies in storage. At the end of the War all the copies were destroyed. At least, this is what the Government thought. 

On 2000, Stuart Manley, a bookseller from Barter Books, found a copy in a box of books that he bought at auction. "I didn't know anything about it but I showed it to my wife. We both liked it so we decided to frame it and put it in the shop."

The couple refused to sell the poster but they decided to print more copies and sell them. Five years later a national newspaper suggested it as a Christmas gift and the sales went through the roof. 

But it was not the only one. Other 15 copies were showed in the BBC's Antiques Roadshow in 2012 and there are some others in the National Archives and the Imperial War Museum in London. 

Nowadays "Keep Calm and Carry On" is one of the most relevant clichés in the country.