Censored!

Poster, Railway Executive Committee as British Railways, 'Censored!', about 1940 - 1943. Second World War propaganda poster with a humorous poem explaing why railway companies are unable to give the reasons for delays, as the information might be of aid to the Germans. Text at centre, with a border illustrating, in pink, white and black, people waiting for trains. At the top is a clock reading 8.55. At bottom are the words "British Railways". Manuscript inscription in blue crayon at top reads 197/3, Double royal.

'Censored!', a Second World War British Railways propaganda poster with a poem explaining why railway companies were unable to give the reasons for delays, as the information might be of aid to the Germans.

The poem reads "In Peace-time railways could explain, When fog or ice held up your train, But now the country's waging war, To tell you why's against the law. The censor says you must not know, When there's been a fall of snow, That's because it would be news, The Germans could not fail to use. So think of this - if it's your fate, To have to meet a train that's late, Railways aren't allowed to say, What delayed the trains to-day".

The text is surrounded by an illustration of people waiting for trains, with a clock reading 8.55.

During the Second World War Britain's private railway companies were run by the government Railway Executive Committee, which was formed in 1939. The name "British Railways" was sometimes used to describe these 'Big Four' companies on official communications. The wartime Railway Executive Committee remained in control of the railways after the war, until they were nationalised by the Labour Government in 1948.