The Patriot Files Forums  

Go Back   The Patriot Files Forums > Conflict posts > World War I

Post New Thread  Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 07-25-2009, 06:50 AM
David's Avatar
David David is offline
Administrator
 

Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 46,798
Distinctions
Special Projects VOM Staff Contributor 
Default Harry Patch, last British WWI soldier, dies at 111

AP


LONDON – Harry Patch, the last British army veteran of World War I, has died at 111, the nursing home where he lived said Saturday.

The Fletcher House care home in Wells, southwest England, said Patch died early Saturday.

"He just quietly slipped away at 9 a.m. this morning," said care home manager Andrew Larpent. "It was how he would have wanted it, without having to be moved to hospitals but here, peacefully with his friends and carers."

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the whole country would mourn "the passing of a great man."

"The noblest of all the generations has left us, but they will never be forgotten. We say today with still greater force, We Will Remember Them," Brown said.

Prince Charles said "nothing could give me greater pride" than paying tribute to Patch.

Patch had been the last surviving soldier from the British army to have served in the 1914-18 war. The only other surviving U.K.-based British veteran of the war, former airman Henry Allingham, died a week ago at age 113.

The Ministry of Defense called Patch "the last British survivor of the First World War," although 108-year-old Claude Choules of Australia is believed to have served in the Royal Navy during the conflict.

Born in southwest England in 1898, Patch was called up for military service in 1916 when he was working as a teenage apprentice plumber. After training he was sent to the trenches as a machine-gunner in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.

A few weeks later, in one of the bloodiest battles of the war, at Passchendaele near the Belgian town of Ypres, he was badly wounded and three of his best friends were killed by a shell explosion.

Patch's death Saturday severs Britain's living links with "the war to end all wars," which killed about 20 million people.

In recent years he and his dwindling band of fellow survivors became poignant symbols of the conflict.

Last year he, Allingham and British naval veteran Bill Stone attended remembrance ceremonies in London to mark the 90th anniversary of the war's end at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. The three frail men in wheelchairs laid wreaths of red poppies at the base of the stone memorial.

Stone died in January.

At a remembrance ceremony in 2007, Patch said he felt "humbled that I should be representing an entire generation."

"Today is not for me. It is for the countless millions who did not come home with their lives intact. They are the heroes," he said. "It is also important we remember those who lost their lives on both sides."

Patch said he did not speak about the war for 80 years. But he came to believe the casualties were not justified.

"I met someone from the German side and we both shared the same opinion: we fought, we finished and we were friends," he said in 2007.

"It wasn't worth it."




The last surviving British World War I veteran, Harry Patch, 110, poses for pictures prior to the Armistice anniversary reception for World War 1 veterans, in this Nov. 11, 2008 file photo taken in London. Patch died Saturday July 25, 2009. He was 111. Patch was the last surviving British solider who served in the 1914-18 war. The only other British survivor, former airman Henry Allingham, died a week ago at 113.

sendpm.gif Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
  #2  
Old 08-06-2009, 08:29 AM
David's Avatar
David David is offline
Administrator
 

Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 46,798
Distinctions
Special Projects VOM Staff Contributor 
Default Thousands at funeral of last WWI trench soldier

WELLS, England (AFP) – Thousands of people paid their respects Thursday at the funeral of Harry Patch, the last soldier to fight in the trenches of Europe in World War I, who died at the age of 111.

Path was laid to rest after a service in Wells Cathedral, in Somerset, southwest England, attended by 1,400 people who heard that he was an ordinary man who had inadvertently become a symbol of the horrors of war.

Thousands more followed the service on a giant screen outside the cathedral.

At the age of 19, Patch fought at the notorious Battle of Passchendaele in 1917, where an estimated half a million troops were killed, but waited until his 100th year before speaking about his wartime experiences.

The Very Reverend John Clarke, Dean of Wells, said at the service: "Harry was an ordinary Somerset man, a plumber who tended his vegetable gardens, looked after his chickens but he became extraordinary, someone who was an icon for our nation and for western Europe."

Patch, who died on July 25, was also briefly Britain's oldest man following the death a week before his own of fellow World War I veteran Henry Allingham at the age of 113. At the time, Allingham was the oldest man in the world.

Their deaths leave just two surviving World War I veterans -- Franck Buckles, 108, of the United States and British-born Claude Choules, 108, who lives in Perth, Australia.

Unlike Patch, however, neither Buckles nor Babcock saw active combat in the 1914-1918 war, says the French website dersdesders.free.fr which tracks the last survivors of the conflict.

Veterans Minister Kevan Jones told mourners on Wednesday that Patch's death "marks the passing of a generation, and of a man who dedicated his final years to spreading the message of peace and reconciliation."

"Active participation in the Great War is now no longer part of living memory in this country, but Harry Patch will continue to be a symbol of the bravery and sacrifice shown by him and those he served with."

In his final years, Patch spoke frequently about the conflict, calling it "organised murder," Jones added.

"It was not worth it, it was not worth one let alone all the millions," he said of the dead.

Patch's coffin was carried into the cathedral by British soldiers of 1st Battalion The Rifles, with two soldiers of each of the armed forces of Belgium, France and Germany acting as pall-bearers.

His great-nephew, David Tucker, carried his medals and decorations.

Diplomats from Belgium and Germany also played a prominent role in the service.

Marie-France Andre of the Belgian embassy read an extract from Patch's book "The Last Fighting Tommy" in which a dying German soldier's cry of "mother!" convinced him there was an afterlife.

"From that day I've always remembered that cry and that death is not the end," Patch had written.

"I remember that lad in particular. It is an image that has haunted me all my life, seared into my mind, but you saw plenty of people wounded, crying for help, but of course you daren't stop, for one you didn't have the medical knowledge to help them and for another you didn't have the time; your orders were to press on and support the infantry."

Eckhard Wilhelm Lubkemeier, charge d'affaires of the German embassy in London, read a lesson from the Bible.







A coffin bearing the body of Harry Patch, the last soldier to fight in the trenches of Europe in World War I, is carried out of Wells Cathedral in Somerset, southwest England. Thousands of people paid their respects at the funeral of the veteran who died at the age of 111.

sendpm.gif Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 08-06-2009, 09:04 AM
DMZ-LT DMZ-LT is offline
Senior Member
 

Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Atlanta , Ga
Posts: 5,599
Distinctions
VOM Contributor 
Thumbs up

Well done , Harry. RIP
sendpm.gif Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Australia's last World War One soldier dies, aged 110 David World War I 3 06-04-2009 08:17 AM
Soldier lands safely after skydive instructor dies David General Posts 1 02-03-2009 06:59 AM
Another Soldier Dies From 'Non-Hostile' Gunshot MORTARDUDE General Posts 0 11-06-2003 08:30 AM
Army Says US Soldier In Iraq Dies Of 'Acute Leukemia' MORTARDUDE General Posts 1 09-02-2003 06:11 PM
Hungry, soldier? Try the patch thedrifter Marines 0 06-25-2003 10:15 AM

All times are GMT -7. The time now is 03:49 AM.


Powered by vBulletin, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.