The whole “white feather” campaign during WWI (women would hand unenlisted young men a “white feather” which was understood to represent cowardice and shame men into enlisting) really contrasts with the unemployment that British soldiers faced after the war: “no former servicemen need apply” was a common warning on shops in the early 20’s. They were treated like garbage before the war, during the war, and after it, too.

Why were they discriminated against after the war? In the US, former servicemen got the world handed to them on a silver platter.

Not after the Vietnam War, so it seems like the near-veneration of veterans in the modern world didn't happen until fairly recently.

That matches my father’s experience - he said he had to leave Virginia because nobody was hiring former sailors after Vietnam.