What did Harry Patch say about war?
What did Harry Patch say about war?
Patch told the then prime minister, Tony Blair, that nobody during the first world war should have been shot for cowardice. “War is organised murder,” he insisted, “and nothing else.” He said that, for him, 11 November was “just showbusiness”.
What is Harry Patch best known for?
Harry Patch of Wells, Somerset, was the last surviving soldier to have fought in the trenches of the First World War. He was born at Combe Down, near Bath, in June 1898, and was called up in October 1916, serving as a private in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry.
Why is Harry Patch a hero?
Henry John Patch (17 June 1898 – 25 July 2009), dubbed in his later years “the Last Fighting Tommy”, was an English supercentenarian, briefly the oldest man in Europe, and the last surviving trench combat soldier of the First World War from any country.
Who was the last surviving ww1 veteran?
Florence Green, a British citizen who served in the Allied armed forces as a Royal Air Force (WRAF) service member, is generally considered to have been the last verified veteran of the war at her death on 4 February 2012, aged 110.
Are bodies still being found from ww1?
German soldiers walking out of a tunnel in the region of Chemin des Dames. After remaining interred for over a century in the Winterberg tunnel, the bodies of more than 270 German soldiers—once thought to be lost deep within the still-battle-scarred French landscape—have recently been discovered.
Who was the oldest soldier in ww1?
The oldest soldier to enlist in WWI is quartermaster sergeant Robert Frederick Robertson (UK, b. 12 September 1842), who was 71 years of age when he enlisted in late 1914. Robert’s service records were destroyed in a WW2 bombing raid, however census reports and newspaper articles date his enlistment as late 1914.