Hundreds line the streets to honour Britain's oldest Great War hero Henry Allingham

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 30th July 2009

[naturalman1975]

A fly-past of replica planes was held to mark the passing of Britain's oldest World War I veteran this afternoon.

Hundreds of people lined the streets to pay their respects to the world's oldest man and British war hero Henry Allingham.

The 113-year-old died peacefully in his sleep on July 18 at his care home St Dunstan's, near Brighton.

Mr Allingham, who served in the Royal Navy and RAF, was laid to rest with full military honours at a service at St Nicholas's Church in Brighton.

As this afternoon's service began, crowds broke into spontaneous applause as his Union Flag-draped coffin arrived in the church grounds.

.....

.....

.....

Two military buglers from the Royal Marines then sounded the Last Post as his coffin was carried out of the church.

This was followed by a one-minute silence and the Reveille. The procession then slowly made its way away from the church as the bells began to toll 113 times to mark every year of Mr Allingham's life.

The awaiting crowd broke into spontaneous applause and looked skywards as five replica First World War aircraft flew overhead. These included three SE5A biplanes, a Sopwith Pup and a Sopwith triplane.

As Mr Allingham's coffin was driven away, hundreds of members of the public clapped and cheered. The planes are significant because Mr Allingham worked on each of the airframes during his service with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm and subsequently the RAF.

[SanFranDan]

Sadly, England is not what it used to be.

[Redleg Duke]

A class farewell to a distinguished warrior.

[Shooter 2.5]

I put this on the banglist so it will be more attention.

[Shooter 2.5]

The three aircraft you posted are the S.E.5A’s. It was easy to fly, stable and very effective at hight altitude. It was an excellent gun platform. It could outdive anything the Germans flew and climb better than most.

[6323cd]

BTTT

[naturalman1975]

Yes - I can identify WWI aircraft fairly reliably being a Biggles maniac. Not so good on World War II, for some reason, though.

I prefer the Camel to the SE5 (again, probably because that’s what Biggles flew).

[Shooter 2.5]

I heard there was this movie about Biggles and it was worse than horrible. How can you be a fan? Are there books or some other media that was better?

[montomike]

James Bigglesworth, better known in flying circles as “Biggles”, is a fictional pilot and adventurer created by W. E. Johns

[agere_contra]

There are all the ‘Biggles’ books, of course.

[naturalman1975]

The movie was an absolute travesty, introducing time travel into the equation among other things.

The Biggles books, on the other hand, were written by ‘Captain’ W.E. Johns, himself a World War I pilot, from 1932 until 1968. They covered the career of James Bigglesworth through as a pilot in both World Wars (and other smaller conflicts), an adventuring pilot/explorer between the wars and as a aerial police officer after the second world war with periods as a spy and other adventures along the way. There’s nearly 100 books in the series. They are ‘boys own adventure’ types and at one stage were among the most popular books for boys in Britain and the empire.

[naturalman1975]

Just a sample.

[Shooter 2.5]

I never heard of the books. I thought there was a series of movies so I order what I thought was the correct one and it was painful to watch. I take it to mean the books were illustrated for young adults?

[Shooter 2.5]

Thank you. Now I understand. I had hoped the movie was better but I was uncomfortable just trying to watch it.

It would be great if the James Bond movie producers would start a movie series.

[naturalman1975]

The original books were written for adults, but they rapidly became very popular with boys and so they became W.E. Johns main audience. They are war stories, or detective stories, or adventure stories for the most part, fairly pulpish at times, but are an entertaining read.

[6323cd]

This is appropriate for this thread...

"The Flowers of the Forest" (Running time: 6:31)

The traditional lament for the fallen in forces of the British Commonwealth, sung by Isla St.Clair, with the pipes over images of home, war, and the repatriation of British, Canadian and Australian soldiers.

[nina0113]

Sad to know that almost all the WWI vets are gone now - I remember when I was a kid, they were always out in uniform, “selling” poppies for Memorial Day. I have a scan of a photo of my grandmother and her cousin, wearing my great-uncles’ WWI uniforms.

[naturalman1975]

I do not blame you - the movie was awful. It was even worse for fans on the books who had to put up with so much that was just wrong (leaving aside the time travel aspect, there were characters appearing in the film, set in World War I/and the 1980s) who were from the World War II and subsequent books and who weren't even born during the First World War in one case. They paid for the name and then they, for some reason (allegedly they wanted to cash in on the success of Back to the Future) made something that had very little to do with a well known and popular series of books.

[naturalman1975]

A great Australian song - And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda ends with the following lament:

But the band plays "Waltzing Matilda,"
And the old men still answer the call,
But as year follows year, more old men disappear
Someday, no one will march there at all.

[EDINVA]

What a lovely farewell.

It would be nice to think that the UK and US could revert to some of their ‘old ways’ of respect, honor and dignity. We tend to see those qualities only in coverage of this sort in smaller towns and cities.