On December 10th, 1920, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize, in recognition of his effort to create The League of Nations. This was a rare late award, permitted under the rules but not previously done. The reason for the delay was that some of the committee were reluctant because the U.S. Senate had failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles in November, 1919.

Growing up in a university town, I was familiar with the Nobel Prize; one of my friends was the youngest son of James B. Sumner (1887–1955), recipient in Chemistry for 1946, and his prize was on display in the family living room.

Robert Bárány

Sumner didn’t serve in WW1 since he was missing part of his left arm, but there were other Nobelists who did. I recently came across the interesting story of Robert Bárány (1876-1936), the 1914 recipient in Medicine, who was a doctor in the Austro-Hungarian Army. You can read this article at this address: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4325576/

I haven’t researched the subject in depth as it would require reading the official Nobel biographies of several hundred persons. But from my other research I can offer this partial list of others prize winners who are connected to the Great War:

Marie Curie née Sklowdowska (1867-1934) 1903 Physics 1911 Chemistry

Alexis Carrel (1873-1944) 1912 Medicine

Laurence Bragg (1890-1971) 1915 Physics

Fritz Haber (1868-1934) 1918 Chemistry

Frederic Banting (1891-1941) 1923 Medicine

Charles Dawes (1865-1951) 1925 Peace

Carl Bosch (1874–1940) 1931 Chemistry

 Irène Joliot-Curie (1897-1956) 1935 Chemistry

Francis Peyton Rous (1879-1970) 1966 Medicine

F. A. Hayek (1899-1992) 1974 Economics

I should mention that during the five year period 1914 – 1918, 13 out of 25 Nobel prizes weren’t awarded, and the 1917 Peace prize was awarded to The Red Cross.

James (“Jim”) Patton BS BA MPA is a retired state official from Shawnee, Kansas and a frequent contributor to several WW1 e-publications, including "Roads to the Great War," "St. Mihiel Tripwire," "Over the Top" and "Medicine in the First World War." He has spent many hours walking the WW1 battlefields, and is also an authority on British regiments and a collector of their badges. An Army Engineer during the Vietnam War, he does work for the US World War 1 Centennial Commission and is affiliated with the WW1 Historical Association, the Western Front Association, the Salonika Campaign Society and the Gallipoli Association.