What was the name of the British journalist who called the Great War Wordl War I?

Factual Questions
1

Hi ,
I just came across this article in the Atlantic.

…"the First World War (caustically named in 1918 by an English journalist who thought it would not be the last) "

Who was the British journalist who named this Great War World War I. I look forward to your feedback.
davidmich

2

This is what wikipedia has to say:

The term “First World War” was first used in September 1914 by the German philosopher Ernst Haeckel, who claimed that “there is no doubt that the course and character of the feared ‘European War’ … will become the first world war in the full sense of the word.”[20] The First World War was also the title of a 1920 history by the officer and journalist Charles à Court Repington.[21] After the onset of the Second World War in 1939, the terms World War I or the First World War became standard, with British and Canadian historians favouring the First World War, and Americans World War I.

3

This was on QI

4

The Atlantic article appears to be correct but doesn’t mention the name of he British correspondent. Wikipedia has it :

On returning to London, he took a position as a military correspondent with the Morning Post from 1902–1904, and The Times from 1904-1918. His coverage as a war correspondent in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 later appeared in book form as The War in the Far East…
… Also noteworthy is the fact that Repington appears to be the first person to use the name the First World War, on 10 Sep 1918 in a conversation noted in his diary, hoping that title would serve as a reminder and warning that the Second World War was a possibility in the future.[9]

5

Thanks Shearer. Very helpful.
davidmich

6

Years ago (I’m thinking 1980 or so) there was an HBO documentary about *Time *magazine. (narrated by Patrick O’Neal). Towards the end it claimed that in regards to World War Two, “the magazine not only covered the war, but actually named it”, saying that the day Hitler invaded Poland it was the first publisher to use the term, claiming that before this World War One was pretty much universally called The Great War.

7

Thank you HailAnts. I wasn’t aware of that.
davidmich

8

Yes, the Great War was commonly so called right though the 20s and 30s (and indeed beyond). Occasionally it was just callled the “World War”. While the terms “First World War” and “World War I” had been coined, they didn’t predominate. They were used mainly in contexts where the speaker wished to call attention to the fact that the Great War had been worse than anything that had gone before (it was the first war to encompass the whole world) or to the fact that political conditions made another war likely at some future date (if there’s a first world war, there can be a second).

The first recorded use of the term “Second World War” is in a 1930 novel of H. G. Wells. That referred to a fictional war, of course, but by 1942 the term was in common use to describe the war of 1939-45. “World War No. 2” appeared in a headline in the Manchester Guardian in 1919; it referred to an imagined future war arising out of the social upheaval consequent on the 1914-18 war. “World War II” was first used to refer to the 1939-45 war in Time Magazine in September 1939.

9

We’ve had several lengthy threads devoted to this.

Early use of the phrase ‘World War I’ (and equivalents)

When was the term “World War I” coined?

When was “World War 2” First Used?

What was WWI called before WWII?

10

Thank you UDS ands Exapno Mapcase. Very helpful indeed.
davidmich

11

In Russia they call World War II “The Great Patriotic War.” Do other countries give different names to either World War?