Reason for Dates of Commemoration on CWGC

[Justin Moretti]

Commonwealth men and women who were still in military service at the time of their death. These personnel automatically qualify for commemoration provided they died within the qualifying dates as follows:
First World War - 4th August 1914 to 31st August 1921
Second World War - 3rd September 1939 to 31st December 1947

 

Question: why are the cutoff end dates so long after the end of the war in both cases?

[corisande]

WW1 there was a war in Ireland.!l

The truce came in July 1921

[Justin Moretti]

Ah! That explains WW1. Or was it the post-war occupation also?

[Matlock1418]

13 hours ago, Justin Moretti said:

Question: why are the cutoff end dates so long after the end of the war in both cases?

Ending WW1 took a series of Peace Treaties with the various former-enemy nations and thus a few years to complete.

M

Edit: LLT has this explanation https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/when-did-the-great-war-end

Edited 20 March by Matlock1418
typo

[kenf48]

1 hour ago, Justin Moretti said:

Commonwealth men and women who were still in military service at the time of their death. These personnel automatically qualify for commemoration provided they died within the qualifying dates as follows:
First World War - 4th August 1914 to 31st August 1921
Second World War - 3rd September 1939 to 31st December 1947

 

Question: why are the cutoff end dates so long after the end of the war in both cases?

See footnote on CWGC policy document on Commemoration  

https://www.cwgc.org/media/0awj5vti/policy-eligibility-criteria-for-commemoration_march21.pdf

As noted above 31 August 1921 is the date determined by the Order in Council in accordance with the Termination of the Present War (Definition) Act.

The WW2 was agreed by the partipating governments to be roughly equivalent to the WW1 dates so for the latter no particular reason other than convention.

[Justin Moretti]

2 hours ago, kenf48 said:

See footnote on CWGC policy document on Commemoration  

https://www.cwgc.org/media/0awj5vti/policy-eligibility-criteria-for-commemoration_march21.pdf

As noted above 31 August 1921 is the date determined by the Order in Council in accordance with the Termination of the Present War (Definition) Act.

The WW2 was agreed by the partipating governments to be roughly equivalent to the WW1 dates so for the latter no particular reason other than convention.

Thank you!

One learns something new every day.

[Matlock1418]

12 hours ago, kenf48 said:

Termination of the Present War (Definition) Act.

@Justin Moretti

Termination of the Present War (Definition) Act. 1918 - Dated: 21 November 1918

Clearly somebody had a draft handy or was quick off the mark to scribe and then to enact it.

The London/Edinburgh Gazette then published a number of announcements as the various treaties were ratified.

M

[Justin Moretti]

16 hours ago, kenf48 said:

The WW2 was agreed by the partipating governments to be roughly equivalent to the WW1 dates so for the latter no particular reason other than convention.

I do wonder if this marks the formal end of British participation in the postwar occupation of Japan.

[kenf48]

Split this into new thread as it was going way off topic