A private institution with public utility status, it is answerable to the Ministry of National Defence.

The first meeting of the League of Combatants of the Great War took place on 16 October 1923,[1] at the office of the lawyer João Jaime Faria Afonso in Lisbon.

[2] Faria Affonso had been lobbying for the creation of the League starting in 1919, but achieved little initial success.

The League was established due to the unjust treatment of Great War veterans, especially those who had suffered lasting injuries.

The founders of the League believed that, after having had fulfilled their duty and oath to spill their blood for the homeland, the veterans had (perhaps even intentionally) been abandoned by the government then in power, causing serious damage to the patriotism, discipline and morals of the Portuguese people.