"This is a moment for Britain to be proud of. We can, at last, pay off the debts Britain incurred to fight the First World War," Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said in the release. "It is a sign of our fiscal credibility and it's a good deal for this generation of taxpayers."
According to the UK Treasury, the country will redeem almost two billion pounds (almost $3 billion dollars) of debt from the 3.5 percent War Loan.
"Today's announcement also represents the start of a strategy to remove all six of the other remaining undated Gilts in the government's portfolio, when we deem it value for money to do so," news release reads.
The gilts include debt issued to recover from the stock market crash in 1720 and to provide for nationalization of the Bank of England in 1946.
Earlier in October Osborne announced the first planned repayment of £218 million (slightly over $341 million) in bonds issued by then Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1927.
War bonds are debt securities issued by governments to cover war time expenditures. The War Loan was issued by British authorities in 1917 calling on the public to invest their savings in five percent bonds. In 1932 then Chancellor Neville Chamberlain reduced the original five percent to 3.5. British authorities owe payment to more than 120,000 holders of war bonds, the majority of which hold less than one thousand pounds (over one thousand five hundred dollars) nominal value.
