Mourners pay tribute to first world war soldier Harry Patch

The Guardian ^ | August 6 2009 | Steven Morris

[Winniesboy]

Friends remember last survivor of the trenches, who died last month at the age of 111, in service at Wells cathedral... They said it many different ways, but the message was essentially the same. In most respects, Henry John "Harry" Patch was an ordinary man...But just about everyone who attended Patch's funeral service in the cathedral city of Wells today also seemed to agree that, somehow, he had become something quite extraordinary.

It was not just that he became the last man to remember, first hand, the horrors of the first world war trenches, but also that he became both a spokesperson for his generation....

[Winniesboy]

Photos here:

[Winniesboy]

Sorry, link didn't work. Try again:

[ThreePuttinDude]

WOW, I had the opportunity to be in a room of 2 WW1 vets
along with several WW11 vets about 10 years ago. That was the best 2 hours of listening time I ever had.

Each one as proud as the next, but without being boastful.
They never delved into the specifics, but there was an
underlying feeling that they could tell you some really
grizzly stuff. Those guys are gone now, but I still
remember sitting, quietly while they shared their lives.

TPD

[Winniesboy]

Oh dear, I’m doing something wrong here. Here’s another try:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2009/aug/06/firstworldwar

[Winniesboy]

Phew...made it 3rd time...

[Bringbackthedraft]

Reminiscent of the 50’s when the last CW vet died. If I remember correctly he was a drummer boy and they buried him in a Confederate General’s uniform. The name John B Stalling comes to mind.

[Charlespg]

Each one as proud as the next, but without being boastful. They never delved into the specifics, but there was an underlying feeling that they could tell you some really grizzly stuff. Those guys are gone now, but I still remember sitting, quietly while they shared their lives

I just finished reading a book on the by a Peter Hart.

the conditions in the trenches begger all description
trench sides shored up with corpses,bodys hung on the barbed wire that seethed with flys and maggots duning the summer and were picked clean by rats during winter


if the people in Europe had know the conditions both sides were forced to live and fight they probably would have demanded a end to the war

[Charlespg]

the somme

[The Great RJ]

I had the privilege of knowing a WW-I veteran in my service club. He was 100 years old when I knew him and still could tell some vivid stories about his experiences. He was in the Army Signal Corps maintaining the phone lines on the Western front. He spoke of German artillery barrages lasting for days that would cut the telephone lines and how they would send the youngest and least experienced soldiers to follow the lines and attempt a repair. He sadly commented that very few came back.