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Saturday, July 25, 2009

Last British Army WWI veteran dead at 111

Sad to hear of this , Like most of you out there , We watched the documentaries on T.V. , and listened to Mr .Patch ,talk of all the craziness of the Great war ! It was Very interesting hearing his first hand account !
RIP Harry !


LONDON, England (CNN) -- Harry Patch -- the last surviving British soldier from World War I -- died Saturday at the age of 111, Britain's Ministry of Defence said.
Harry Patch, pictured here on November 11, 2008, at an Armistice Day commemoration ceremony in London.

Patch died peacefully at his care home in the southwestern English city of Wells, the ministry announced.

His death came a week after fellow British World War I veteran Henry Allingham died at the age of 113.

Patch was the last surviving soldier to have witnessed the horrors of trench warfare in the first World War

He fought and was seriously wounded in Ypres, Belgium, in 1917 at the Battle of Passchendaele, in which 70,000 of his fellow soldiers died -- including three of his close friends.

Born in 1898, Patch became a plumber before being conscripted to the army in 1916. After training, Patch was recruited to The Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry as a Lewis gunner assistant.
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