Another interesting illustration from David Millichope's book, [825] relates to the brands Bovril and Oxo. This advertisement appeared within the Halifax Courier [827] during late October 1914, wherein 'it proudly proclaimed that its Board of Directors consisted entirely of British Nationals. Bovril was displaying its impeccable British credentials by emphasising that its creator was the British born John Lawson Johnson. This was not so for its commercial rival, Oxo, whose founder was Justus Freiherr von Liebig, a German.'
Xenophobia was rife at the onset of war with Germany and even pigeons came under suspicion of being spies. Their possession came under Regulation 21 of the Defence of the Realm Act of 1914, which required all owners of homing pigeons to register with the local constabulary. I can imagine the reaction from the average flat capped, whippet and homing pigeon keeping, working class 'Tyke', of the former West Riding of Yorkshire ; no wonder that the derogatory term 'Kraut evolved by the end of the war!
