One of the primary functions of the Publicity Department was the production and dissemination of publicity materials such as election posters and leaflets, on a massive scale.

The first Press Adviser was appointed by Conservative Central Office in 1910 and a Press Bureau was established in 1911, while the Party’s first Director of Publicity, Joseph Ball, was appointed in 1927, during the chairmanship of JCC Davidson (1926-1930). Davidson’s memoirs record that, ‘The first job on which I set my mind was to apply the lessons of the Great War to the organisation of political warfare’ [p. 337, Memoirs of a Conservative: JCC Davidson’s Memoirs and Papers 1920-1937 (ed. R. Rhodes James, London, 1969)]. Davidson was the first to employ advertising agencies to help present the Party’s message, using first the Holford-Bottomley Advertising Service, JH Benson’s, and also Press Secretaries Ltd, during the inter-war years.

More commonly described as the Chief Publicity Officer, the post was created following a review of the Party organisation undertaken by Deputy Party Chairman Lord Stanley in 1927, in order to reduce some of the workload of the Principal Agent (from 1931, the General Director), the head of Conservative Central Office, and was of equal status to him. When the post of General Director was abolished in 1966, the positions of Chief Organisation Officer and Chief Publicity Officer were re-named Director of Organisation and Director of Publicity respectively.

The Director of Publicity was assisted by a Deputy, but the increasing importance of communications to the Party saw the creation of 3 Deputy Directors by the early 1970s covering Broadcasting; Press and Publicity; and Publications.

The Deputy Director (Broadcasting) was ‘the executive in charge of all matters relating to sound and television broadcasting…[and] the Party’s prime link with the broadcasting authorities’, and as well as being in charge of operation of the Party’s own studios as Central Office was also responsible for the preparation of Party Political Broadcasts [Source: Memorandum concerning the role of the Director of Publicity by Donald Harker, Director of Publicity, 30/03/1976: shelfmark: CCO 20/7/26].