This painting was part of a series of 75 paintings, drawings and prints that Nevinson completed after his return from France and Belgium where he had been sent by the British government as an official war artist on July 5, 1917.
At the time that his works were being reviewed by the government, two paintings, Paths of Glory and A Group of Soldiers, were officially deemed 'hindrances to the war effort'. A Group of Soldiers was "suppressed because of it's purportedly unflattering representation of British soldiers, who were thought to resemble mannequins or ventriloquist's dummies", however, in the end it was decided that the image should "only be censored 'from a military point of view, not an aesthetic one'" and was ultimately approved for exhibition and reproduction in December of 1917.
Paths of Glory remained a censored image, thought the reasoning behind this is still unclear. The explanation given by the government at the time was that the image of dead British soldiers would undermine the public morale at a time during the war when morale was already at an all time low. However the numerous other exhibitions around London at that time portraying dead soldiers, both Allied an enemy soldiers, is inconsistent with that reasoning. There were also a number of war photographers who's images were equally if not more graphic showing frequently in London as well. One possible explanation for this double standard is that the government at the time considered photographs to be merely records of events as opposed to works of art, and therefore intention and effect were not critiqued in the same manner.
Another possibility for the controversy surrounding this painting was actually the title, Paths of Glory. It has been proffered that perhaps the most popular poem in the English language, and certainly the most popular at the time was Thomas Gray's poem 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", wherein the ninth stanza contains the line, "The paths of glory lead but to the grave." This poem was apparently a common source of support for the war ridden public during this low point.
Regardless of the immediate reasoning, the government did purchase the painting, supposedly to control itıs display, but it was left in Nevinson's possession. Nevinson included it in his one-man show at the Leicester Galleries, London in March of 1918. On later accounts he states that it was included that the controversy would die down prior to the shows opening. When this failed to happen, rather than remove it from the wall, he hung a large banner diagonally across it which read, "CENSORED."
Source: "Art Journal", v51 p22-91, Spring 92