Henry Allingham

[kizmiaz]

Farewell Mr Allingham, you were and always will be a Pride of this Nation.

Here's hoping you are now happily chatting away to all those lads you spent your life making sure no-one else forgot.

Your work here is now done, and your rest can now begin

RIP

Glen

[Siamese Girl]

And now the only one left is Harry Patch.

It is the ending of an era.

Carole

[Alan b]

Very sad news, we owe Henry and many many others a massive debt of thanks for what they did.

[Marion_C]

Farewell Henry, rest in peace.

[Redroger]

I believe a state funeral has been mentioned previously. Hopefully this will take place, but only if the family want it.RIP Henry 1896-2009

[Windsor87]

I believe a state funeral has been mentioned previously. Hopefully this will take place, but only if the family want it.RIP Henry 1896-2009

If I'm not mistaken, only the last veteran was to be offered the State Funeral.
Also, if my memory serves me correctly, both Patch and Allingham refused this honour when it was mentioned a few years ago.

Although we see them as special, they see themselves as one of millions who fought.

It is a sad day though. At least he held on long enough to become the World's Oldest man.

[Viktoria]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                I thought a state funeral would be fitting, not thinking about his family`s wishes                                                                                                                                              I                         Perhaps he has said what he would want, that will be the guide.
                        I was so sad that he could not quite make it when he struggled so hard to lay his wreath himself on the cenotaph.      
                                           There was just one WAAF helping him and great strapping men just stood and gave no help, I felt then that how sad if it was the last remembrance service he attended.
                        It is so upsetting when we hear of another young soldier killed in the present conflicts and I don`t mean to diminish those deaths but it is hard to imagine when whole streets , of Pals Battalions were wiped out - in the first five minutes for the Accrington Pals on the first day of the Battle of The Somme .Brothers and  fathers and sons from the same family. Some women lost three or four family member in one day .Every death is one too many. Viktoria


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[Siamese Girl]

I know anyone's passing is sad, but it some ways I think it's fitting and symbolic that the very last survivor of the war is Harry Patch - a Lewis gunner who was there fighting in the trenches.

Carole

[Viktoria]

How stupid to fight in that way when in Belgium at least the people had flooded the land so the German`s could not   properly occupy it so our barmy( and that`s putting it mildly!) -brass hats decided to fight from trenches. For TRENCHES read DRAINAGE CHANNELS.
I agree it is fitting that the last WW1 survivor fought in the trenches. They were the epitome of horror . It is a wonder the troops did not mutiny, but people were much more in awe of authority
and of course "shot at dawn " would have been the sentence.
 I asked my dad once "however did you get the courage to go over the top?" He explained that often there was a Military policeman behind them and men who did not go over on the whistle could be shot---there was more chance of surviving if you went over. I don`t know if that is exactly true but when troops were very demoralised I can imagine they needed  an" incentive "to  go and get shot!!! Such bravery.I get very angry, the cream of youth destroyed by old men. Viktoria.