'A Cause of Military Inefficiency', booklet on STIs, England, 1914-1918

Booklet, "A cause of Military Inefficiency", on venereal disease, issued to First World War troops

This booklet was issued to British soldiers during the First World War. The quote from Lord Kitchener (1850-1916), the face of military recruitment, sums up the tone of the booklet:

“It is…dishonest, that by contracting through self-indulgence a disease which he can avoid, a man should render himself incapable of doing that work for his Country which he enlisted to do.”

Kitchener is referring to the sexually transmitted infections – then known as venereal diseases – gonorrhoea and syphilis. The advice given in this booklet was to not engage in sexual activity at all. This was helped by avoiding alcohol and not “read[ing] filthy books or talk[ing] about filthy subjects”.