The last survivor of the first world war trenches has died aged 111.
Harry Patch, knicknamed the ‘Last Tommy’, died peacefully at his care home in Wells, Somerset, at 9am this morning.
His death comes one week after that of fellow veteran Henry Allingham, then the world’s oldest man, at 113.
Patch, who fought at the Battle of Passchendale in 1917, was the last veteran of the great war left in Britain. He once said: “Millions of men came to fight in this war and I find it incredible that I am the only one left.”
Born Henry Patch on 17 June 1898, in Combe Down, near Bath, he became a plumber after leaving school.
He signed up for the army when he was 18, serving as a private in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.
The Battle of Passchendale at Ypres was one of the bloodiest land battles of the war and claimed 70,000 of Patch’s fellow servicemen.
Although he survived the muddy conflict Patch was later injured when an enemy shell exploded over his head, killing three of his colleagues.
The resulting shrapnel wounds put him out of action for the rest of war and he returned to Britain to recover.
He married his first wife Ada Billington in 1918 and they had two sons Dennis and Roy but Ada died in 1976 and Patch outlived both their children.
His second wife Jean, died five years ago, while his third partner Doris, who lived in the same retirement home, died last year.
He returned to plumbing after the leaving the army and joined the Auxiliary Fire Service in Bath during the second world war.
His care home Fletcher House today confirmed his death saying he slipped away peacefully in his sleep.
Chief Executive of Somerset Care, Andrew Larpent, said Mr Patch had been unwell for some time.
He added: “His friends and his family have been here and he just quietly slipped away at 9am this morning.
“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 today paid tribute to Patch, saying: “I had the honour of meeting Harry, and I share his family’s grief at the passing of a great man.
“I know that the whole nation will unite today to honour the memory, and to take pride in the generation that fought the Great War.
“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’.”
Last Saturday 113-year-old Henry Allingham, who served in the air force, died at his care home, near Brighton.
The last known British survivor of first world war, is now Worcestershire-born Claude Choules, 108, a Royal Navy veteran who lives in Australia.
We. and I do mean everyone..... owe a debt to these men so that we may be free today. Earlier this year I went to France and spent a few days at various first world war cemeteries where some of my extended family died serving this country. What struck me besides the thousands of graves was the young age of the men who served to defend there country. Some like the young soldiers who died last week as young as 18, 17, even 16...... young lads. Tragic indeed.
[cite]Posted By: ken from bexley[/cite]We. and I do mean everyone..... owe a debt to these men so that we may be free today. Earlier this year I went to France and spent a few days at various first world war cemeteries where some of my extended family died serving this country. What struck me besides the thousands of graves was the young age of the men who served to defend there country. Some like the young soldiers who died last week as young as 18, 17, even 16...... young lads. Tragic indeed.
[cite]Posted By: Imissthepeanutman[/cite]Henry Allingham and Harry Patch dying within a week of each other is quite moving.
We will remember them all.
Moving indeed. Can still visualise the three of them at the last remembrance day... just over eight months later and all three of them have passed away. We will remember them.
Harry would not speak of his experiences until he was 100 years old. He had nothing but contempt for the whole bloody episode. "If they don't like what I say, let them come and shoot me" he said after again saying what a complete waste of innocent lives WW1 was.
"War is not worth 1 life" he said.
It was mentioned to him that he may have a State Funeral, he totally rejected the idea. He was in a trench when his two mates next to him were killed outright, he has carried that memory with him all his long life.
Our Prime Minister has jumped on the bandwagon and said there will be some sort of National Memorial service. It's a shame he didn't listen to Harry when he was alive; as here we are today when we have lost our 20th solider this month in Afghanistan. Another waste of young life and in a pointless war for us. WWI, the war to end all wars, for all it's brutality had a purpose that shaped all our lives, no one yet has convinced me why we are in Afghanistan or still in Iraq.
I heard a Lance Corporal on the radio tonight who had just come back from Afghanistan and he was saying that the soilders out there just did not know what the next move was, why there were still there or had been told any specific aims or objectives the British Army had. Thank goodness Harry didn't have to hear that.
No one has learnt anything, but we keep sending them out there.
[cite]Posted By: Chirpy Red[/cite]THERE IS NO GLORY IN WAR
True.
But we'd all be speaking German now if we hadn't stood our corner for what we thought was right.
NEVER GIVE IN TO BULLIES.
As I said "WWI, the war to end all wars, for all it's brutality it had a purpose that shaped all our lives,"
You do what you have to do, just as in any walk of life.
We did what we had to do in 1914-18 and 1939-45, but what the likes of Harry and many more like him did should have shown us that war is horrific and should be avoided at any oppotuinty - like today.
[cite]Posted By: Chirpy Red[/cite]Harry would not speak of his experiences until he was 100 years old. He had nothing but contempt for the whole bloody episode. "If they don't like what I say, let them come and shoot me" he said after again saying what a complete waste of innocent lives WW1 was.
"War is not worth 1 life" he said.
It was mentioned to him that he may have a State Funeral, he totally rejected the idea. He was in a trench when his two mates next to him were killed outright, he has carried that memory with him all his long life.
Our Prime Minister has jumped on the bandwagon and said there will be some sort of National Memorial service. It's a shame he didn't listen to Harry when he was alive; as here we are today when we have lost our 20th solider this month in Afghanistan. Another waste of young life and in a pointless war for us. WWI, the war to end all wars, for all it's brutality had a purpose that shaped all our lives, no one yet has convinced me why we are in Afghanistan or still in Iraq.
I heard a Lance Corporal on the radio tonight who had just come back from Afghanistan and he was saying that the soilders out there just did not know what the next move was, why there were still there or had been told any specific aims or objectives the British Army had. Thank goodness Harry didn't have to hear that.
No one has learnt anything, but we keep sending them out there.
THERE IS NO GLORY IN WAR
Great post Chirpy. I agree with every word you have written here.
WWI may have been "spun" as the "war to end all wars" but was the same war Britain had been fighting in Europe for 100s of years.
GB provided the money and navy, but relatively few soldiers compared to others, for the various wars in mainland Europe to prevent one country or another (France or Germany or Spain) gaining control of the continent and stopping UK trade and commerce.
We fought to protect the Belgium ports falling into German control and were quite happy to snap up a few more bits of Empire in Africa, the near East and far east while we were at it.
That doesn't in any way diminish the bravery or endeavour of people like Harry but he and many others realised at the time that "dulce et docurum est" was a lie
I add my respects to the two Harry's who have died so close to one another.
The new poet laureate Carol Anne Duffy has penned a poem to mark the occasion. I found this interestingly moving. Would that the great Wilfred Owen might have survived and lived on to have written this. I kind of think if he's looking down reading this he would approve:
LAST POST
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If poetry could tell it backwards, true, begin
that moment shrapnel scythed you to the stinking mud…
but you get up, amazed, watch bled bad blood
run upwards from the slime into its wounds;
see lines and lines of British boys rewind
back to their trenches, kiss the photographs from home-
mothers, sweethearts, sisters, younger brothers
not entering the story now
to die and die and die.
Dulce- No- Decorum- No- Pro patria mori.
You walk away.
You walk away; drop your gun (fixed bayonet)
like all your mates do too-
Harry, Tommy, Wilfred, Edward, Bert-
and light a cigarette.
There's coffee in the square,
warm French bread
and all those thousands dead
are shaking dried mud from their hair
and queuing up for home. Freshly alive,
a lad plays Tipperary to the crowd, released
from History; the glistening, healthy horses fit for heroes, kings.
You lean against a wall,
your several million lives still possible
and crammed with love, work, children, talent, English beer, good food.
You see the poet tuck away his pocket-book and smile.
If poetry could truly tell it backwards,
then it would.
Rest in peace gentlemen, what those two boys' eyes must have seen is something else.
My Dad's old aunt passed away a couple of months ago aged just shy of 105, I tell you what. None of us will reach any of those ages and our lives have been a lot cosier. Terrible times they have been through and just shrug it off.
[cite]Posted By: Carter[/cite]Rest in peace gentlemen, what those two boys' eyes must have seen is something else.
My Dad's old aunt passed away a couple of months ago aged just shy of 105, I tell you what. None of us will reach any of those ages and our lives have been a lot cosier. Terrible times they have been through and just shrug it off.
Comments
RIP and Thank You.
RIP big man i hope you find your love again up there
Harry Patch, knicknamed the ‘Last Tommy’, died peacefully at his care home in Wells, Somerset, at 9am this morning.
His death comes one week after that of fellow veteran Henry Allingham, then the world’s oldest man, at 113.
Patch, who fought at the Battle of Passchendale in 1917, was the last veteran of the great war left in Britain. He once said: “Millions of men came to fight in this war and I find it incredible that I am the only one left.”
Born Henry Patch on 17 June 1898, in Combe Down, near Bath, he became a plumber after leaving school.
He signed up for the army when he was 18, serving as a private in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.
The Battle of Passchendale at Ypres was one of the bloodiest land battles of the war and claimed 70,000 of Patch’s fellow servicemen.
Although he survived the muddy conflict Patch was later injured when an enemy shell exploded over his head, killing three of his colleagues.
The resulting shrapnel wounds put him out of action for the rest of war and he returned to Britain to recover.
He married his first wife Ada Billington in 1918 and they had two sons Dennis and Roy but Ada died in 1976 and Patch outlived both their children.
His second wife Jean, died five years ago, while his third partner Doris, who lived in the same retirement home, died last year.
He returned to plumbing after the leaving the army and joined the Auxiliary Fire Service in Bath during the second world war.
His care home Fletcher House today confirmed his death saying he slipped away peacefully in his sleep.
Chief Executive of Somerset Care, Andrew Larpent, said Mr Patch had been unwell for some time.
He added: “His friends and his family have been here and he just quietly slipped away at 9am this morning.
“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 today paid tribute to Patch, saying: “I had the honour of meeting Harry, and I share his family’s grief at the passing of a great man.
“I know that the whole nation will unite today to honour the memory, and to take pride in the generation that fought the Great War.
“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’.”
Last Saturday 113-year-old Henry Allingham, who served in the air force, died at his care home, near Brighton.
The last known British survivor of first world war, is now Worcestershire-born Claude Choules, 108, a Royal Navy veteran who lives in Australia.
Sadly some were younger that that Ken - RIP
We will remember them all.
Moving indeed. Can still visualise the three of them at the last remembrance day... just over eight months later and all three of them have passed away. We will remember them.
"War is not worth 1 life" he said.
It was mentioned to him that he may have a State Funeral, he totally rejected the idea. He was in a trench when his two mates next to him were killed outright, he has carried that memory with him all his long life.
Our Prime Minister has jumped on the bandwagon and said there will be some sort of National Memorial service. It's a shame he didn't listen to Harry when he was alive; as here we are today when we have lost our 20th solider this month in Afghanistan. Another waste of young life and in a pointless war for us. WWI, the war to end all wars, for all it's brutality had a purpose that shaped all our lives, no one yet has convinced me why we are in Afghanistan or still in Iraq.
I heard a Lance Corporal on the radio tonight who had just come back from Afghanistan and he was saying that the soilders out there just did not know what the next move was, why there were still there or had been told any specific aims or objectives the British Army had. Thank goodness Harry didn't have to hear that.
No one has learnt anything, but we keep sending them out there.
THERE IS NO GLORY IN WAR
Agreed - very moving.
Hate to knock Patch, but he was a conscript, so he didn't theoretically 'sign up'.
True.
But we'd all be speaking German now if we hadn't stood our corner for what we thought was right.
NEVER GIVE IN TO BULLIES.
As I said "WWI, the war to end all wars, for all it's brutality it had a purpose that shaped all our lives,"
You do what you have to do, just as in any walk of life.
We did what we had to do in 1914-18 and 1939-45, but what the likes of Harry and many more like him did should have shown us that war is horrific and should be avoided at any oppotuinty - like today.
Great post Chirpy. I agree with every word you have written here.
RIP Harry
WWI may have been "spun" as the "war to end all wars" but was the same war Britain had been fighting in Europe for 100s of years.
GB provided the money and navy, but relatively few soldiers compared to others, for the various wars in mainland Europe to prevent one country or another (France or Germany or Spain) gaining control of the continent and stopping UK trade and commerce.
We fought to protect the Belgium ports falling into German control and were quite happy to snap up a few more bits of Empire in Africa, the near East and far east while we were at it.
That doesn't in any way diminish the bravery or endeavour of people like Harry but he and many others realised at the time that "dulce et docurum est" was a lie
The new poet laureate Carol Anne Duffy has penned a poem to mark the occasion. I found this interestingly moving. Would that the great Wilfred Owen might have survived and lived on to have written this. I kind of think if he's looking down reading this he would approve:
LAST POST
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If poetry could tell it backwards, true, begin
that moment shrapnel scythed you to the stinking mud…
but you get up, amazed, watch bled bad blood
run upwards from the slime into its wounds;
see lines and lines of British boys rewind
back to their trenches, kiss the photographs from home-
mothers, sweethearts, sisters, younger brothers
not entering the story now
to die and die and die.
Dulce- No- Decorum- No- Pro patria mori.
You walk away.
You walk away; drop your gun (fixed bayonet)
like all your mates do too-
Harry, Tommy, Wilfred, Edward, Bert-
and light a cigarette.
There's coffee in the square,
warm French bread
and all those thousands dead
are shaking dried mud from their hair
and queuing up for home. Freshly alive,
a lad plays Tipperary to the crowd, released
from History; the glistening, healthy horses fit for heroes, kings.
You lean against a wall,
your several million lives still possible
and crammed with love, work, children, talent, English beer, good food.
You see the poet tuck away his pocket-book and smile.
If poetry could truly tell it backwards,
then it would.
My Dad's old aunt passed away a couple of months ago aged just shy of 105, I tell you what. None of us will reach any of those ages and our lives have been a lot cosier. Terrible times they have been through and just shrug it off.
I make you right on that.