Mutton Quad: Keep Calm and Carry On

Had a quick look for an original version of this Government issued 'Keep Calm and Carry On' poster this afternoon. I wanted to be sure of what the original type treatment was before reading too deeply into it.

Interestingly the general notion is that the type was hand-lettered by an unknown civil servant at the time. This is primarily because there isn't anything that matches it today which would suggest that a typeface never existed.

The closest that do come to it are Avenir LT 65 Medium, Gill Sans or Arial. (Avenir looks quite similar to the Canteen treatment).

However, as Avenir costs a bomb to licence and Arial is a Microsoft rip-off typeface, Gill Sans seems the most favourable if I were to take reference to the period. Gill Sans is of course British design also...