Most UK War Memorials show the dates of WW1 as 1914-1918. A few show 1919 (including the Cenotaph in London surprisingly) or even 1921, reflecting the signing of the Peace Treaty with Germany or the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
The CWGC has WW1 as 1914-1921. It lists about 59,000 men who died between 1 January 1919 to 31 August 1921. Of these the vast majority died at home (UK, India, Canada, Australia etc) presumably of illness or wounds or in France, Belgium and Germany. However, some 7,000 died in in Iraq, over 2,000 in Egypt, over 1,100 in Iran plus almost 600 in Greece and 500 in Turkey. Just under 400 men are commemorated in what is now the Russian Federation, so presumably killed during the Intervention in Russia. Beyond that, the killings continued, especially in the Baltic into 1923 and beyond.
So today, most people view the war as ending on Armistice Day in 1918 and that colours our perception of it, with a nice neat ending that we still commemorate. However what if in the years up to say the 1930s it became more generally recognised as ending in 1923, without the neat ending, just a straggling unedifying fading out? How would that change affect the popular perception of WW1? Would it have been described in the same way as "The Great war for Civilisation" when the last years in the Balkans were anything but civilised?
The CWGC has WW1 as 1914-1921. It lists about 59,000 men who died between 1 January 1919 to 31 August 1921. Of these the vast majority died at home (UK, India, Canada, Australia etc) presumably of illness or wounds or in France, Belgium and Germany. However, some 7,000 died in in Iraq, over 2,000 in Egypt, over 1,100 in Iran plus almost 600 in Greece and 500 in Turkey. Just under 400 men are commemorated in what is now the Russian Federation, so presumably killed during the Intervention in Russia. Beyond that, the killings continued, especially in the Baltic into 1923 and beyond.
So today, most people view the war as ending on Armistice Day in 1918 and that colours our perception of it, with a nice neat ending that we still commemorate. However what if in the years up to say the 1930s it became more generally recognised as ending in 1923, without the neat ending, just a straggling unedifying fading out? How would that change affect the popular perception of WW1? Would it have been described in the same way as "The Great war for Civilisation" when the last years in the Balkans were anything but civilised?