# What was the name of the British journalist who called the Great War Wordl War I? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 28, 2014, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-british-journalist-who-called-the-great-war-wordl-war-i/694280 "2014-07-28T22:15:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-british-journalist-who-called-the-great-war-wordl-war-i/694280/1 "2014-07-28T22:15:04Z")
Hi , I just came across this article in the Atlantic. > **[The Tragic Futility of World War I](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/07/world-war-i-tragic-futility/375103/)** > > A century on, we're still paying the price. …"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 ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-british-journalist-who-called-the-great-war-wordl-war-i/694280/2 "2014-07-28T22:17:58Z")
This is what wikipedia has to say: > **[World War I](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I)** > > World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. It was fought between two coalitions, the Allies and the Central Powers. Fighting occurred throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions... 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. ---
**Author:** ![Shearer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/57b2e6/32.png) [@Shearer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shearer)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-british-journalist-who-called-the-great-war-wordl-war-i/694280/3 "2014-07-28T22:28:14Z")
This was on QI > [@](#): > > - The First World War was first named as such in 1918. Lt. Col. Charles à Court Repington wrote in his diary on 19th September 1918 that he met with a Major Johnstone of Harvard University to discuss what the war should be called. Rejected names included “The War” (would not last) and “The German War” (giving too much credit to the Germans). Then Repington suggested “The World War”, and they mutually agreed to call it “The First World War”, ‘in order to prevent the millennium folk from forgetting that the history of the world is the history of war.’ In 1920 Repington published a book called The First World War: 1914-18. It had also been known as “The Great War”, but before that the other Great War was the Napoleonic War. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-british-journalist-who-called-the-great-war-wordl-war-i/694280/4 "2014-07-28T23:06:14Z")
The Atlantic article appears to be correct but doesn’t mention the name of he British correspondent. Wikipedia has it : > **[Charles à Court Repington](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_%C3%A0_Court_Repington)** > > Charles à Court Repington, CMG, (29 January 1858 – 25 May 1925), known until 1903 as Charles à Court, was an English soldier, who went on to have a second career as an influential war correspondent during the First World War. He is also credited with coining the term 'First World War' and one of the first to use the term 'world war' in general. > Charles à Court was born at Heytesbury, in the county of Wiltshire on 29 January 1858, the son of Charles Henry Wyndham A'Court Repington, M.P. His fam... 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] ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-british-journalist-who-called-the-great-war-wordl-war-i/694280/5 "2014-07-28T23:07:51Z")
Thanks Shearer. Very helpful. davidmich ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2014, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-british-journalist-who-called-the-great-war-wordl-war-i/694280/6 "2014-07-28T23:59:27Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-british-journalist-who-called-the-great-war-wordl-war-i/694280/7 "2014-07-29T01:54:31Z")
Thank you HailAnts. I wasn’t aware of that. davidmich ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-british-journalist-who-called-the-great-war-wordl-war-i/694280/8 "2014-07-29T02:12:49Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > 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. 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. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-british-journalist-who-called-the-great-war-wordl-war-i/694280/9 "2014-07-29T02:25:52Z")
We’ve had several lengthy threads devoted to this. [Early use of the phrase ‘World War I’ (and equivalents)](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=723639) [When was the term “World War I” coined?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=686571) [When was “World War 2” First Used?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=409708) [What was WWI called before WWII?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=260148) ---
**Author:** ![davidmich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e56c9b/32.png) [@davidmich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidmich)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-british-journalist-who-called-the-great-war-wordl-war-i/694280/10 "2014-07-29T05:21:51Z")
Thank you UDS ands Exapno Mapcase. Very helpful indeed. davidmich ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2014, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-name-of-the-british-journalist-who-called-the-great-war-wordl-war-i/694280/11 "2014-07-29T14:57:28Z")
In Russia they call World War II “The Great Patriotic War.” Do other countries give different names to either World War?