This is not a full answer but Kipling in 1915 writing to a friend, said about Jane Austen: “the more I read the more I admire and respect and do reverence… When she looks straight at a man or a woman she is greater than those who were alive with her - by a whole head… with a more delicate hand and a keener scalpel.”

He even wrote a short story about of group of British soldiers on the western front who would read the works of Jane Austen as she was the only author who provided relief from the horrors of war.

So Kipling certainly thought highly of her, well before the second world war. Also Kipling is probably the furthest thing from what would be called a feminist.

Jane Austen was certainly popular in her time. The Prince Regent was a fan and she was encouraged to dedicate Emma to him.