The Australian newspaper says Britain’s last surviving World War I veteran has shrugged off his achievement and even described the conflict was boring.
Claude Choules, 108, who lives in a nursing home in Perth, Australia, reacted calmly when was told he had become Britain's only survivor from the Great War. “Everything comes to those who wait and wait,” he said.
Claude’s 80-year-old daughter Anne Pow told him over the weekend the death of 111-year-old Harry Patch, Britain’s last soldier who fought in the 1914 – 1918 war, had made him the country’s sole WWI survivor, Reuter reports.
Claude had fought in the Great War’s infamous trenches and served on HMS Revenge during a 41 years naval career, which spanned both world wars.
He also witnessed the surrender of the German Imperial Navy in 1918, as well as scuttled in the fleet in Scapa Flow, the Australian said to the Reuter.
He was seconded to the Australian navy in 1926 and remained in the force for 30 years.
Pow also mentioned her father had always said war was mostly very tedious punctuated by moments of extreme danger.
Back to the British news reported by the Daily Telegraph, the latest death of WWI vet Harry Patch occured in his sleep at a nursing home in Wells, Somerset on Saturday.
Harry had opposed to a state funeral suggestion before but Gordon Brown has promised that his sacrifice, and those of the millions who fought alongside him, will be remembered in a national memorial service.
The 111-year-old did not discuss his war experiences publicly until he reached his 100th birthday.
He did speak out in his last decade, telling of his haunting memories and his firm belief that those on all sides should be remembered, and that war was never worthwhile.
In 2007 he returned to Passchendaele, where he was almost killed in 1917, to lay two wreaths – one for the British dead and another for Germans killed in the battle.
His funeral will be held in Wells Cathedral but a date has yet to be fixed.
Mr Brown said in the aftermath of Harry Patch's death: “The noblest of all the generations has left us, but they will never be forgotten.”
He went on: “I think it's right that we as a nation have a national memorial service to remember the sacrifice and all the work that was done by those people who served our country during World War One and to remember what we owe to that generation – our freedom, our liberties, the fact that we are a democracy in the world.
“Those men and women during World War One did a huge amount and it's right that we have a special commemoration of what they have done.”
27/07/2009
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