Free Republic

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Canada's last known surviving veteran of World War One is becoming a Canadian citizen, the government said on Friday. John Babcock, 107, was born in Canada but became a U.S. citizen in 1946 and had to give up his status as a British subject - as Canadians were designated before Canada's own citizenship act came into force a year later. Canadian officials recently visited Babcock at his home in Spokane, Washington, to give him an award, and he told them he was interested in being granted citizenship in his birth country. "This means the last...

Howard V. Ramsey, Oregon’s last living World War I veteran, died in his sleep Thursday at the age of 108. Sandra Linnell, one of Ramsey’s two granddaughters, said he spoke of his service with pride. “He was a driving,” she said. “He said there wasn’t many people who drove, so that was his job. He knew how to drive.” Ramsey, an Army corporal in France, was a truck driver who ferried officers, carried water to troops on the front lines and returned the bodies of soldiers killed in battle. Ramsey resided in an assisted living center in southeast Portland. As...