Landships II

philthydirtyanimal · Commander in Chief

WWI Veteran, World's Oldest Man Has Died

elbavaro · Commander in Chief

Is there still any WW1-Veteran alive?

I am little bit surprised as the newspapers in Germany printed - I guess last year (or early this year?) - the last veteran of WW1 died. I remember this because a few months earlier they titled "Last German (or French) vetrean of WW1 died. Now the only one veteran left is French (or German)". I can't remeber exactly which one died first, but one was German and the other one was French.

James H · Legend

Harry Patch is still alive at the time of writing, the last survivor living in the UK. He's 111. It gets a bit complicated because there are or were some British veterans�living in Australia.

The German story was peculiar. The supposed last German survivor died and there was no publicity. The Germans are still bit nervous about World Wars. Then everyone latched on to the story and he was commemorated in the media (by Angela Merkel, amongst others), at which point several more men announced that they had also served in the Great War. I'm not sure what the situation is now.

From memory, the last French and Italian vets passed away in the last couple of years. There's a site on Wikipedia that tries to keep the records up-to-date.

The good news is that the number of visitors to Flanders and the Somme has been increasing steadily for several years.

Gwyn Evans · Legend

Rest in Peace, Henry.

elbavaro · Commander in Chief

Today I read in a German newspaper (last page):

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Record Holder died

The worlds oldest man is dead: the British Henry Allingham died last Saturday in age of 113 years. He was the next to last British veteran of WW 1. His recipe for a long life: "zigarettes, Whiskey and wild women."
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Btw: it was the same newspaper that titled "Last veteran of WW1 died".

Rest in peace Henry.