WW I veteran dies

[Ryan]

Paris - One of France's two remaining World War I veterans died on Sunday at the age of 110, the French Veterans Ministry said.

Born on October 16 1897, Louis de Cazenave signed up in 1916 and served with the fifth Senegalese battalion, seeing active service from December 1916 to September 1917.

He took part in the Second Battle of the Aisne, the so-called Chemin des Dames, part of an offensive launched by General Robert Nivelle which ended in disaster and widespread mutiny for the French army.

On returning to civilian life in 1919 he became a railwayman, marrying and fathering three sons, before retiring at the age of 41 and settling in the small town of Brioude, in the central Auvergne region.

"He died as he wanted to, at home," Cazenave's son, also called Louis, told AFP. "He had stopped speaking yesterday (on Saturday), he had a peaceful death. He didn't suffer at all."

Cazenave is to be buried on Tuesday in a simple ceremony.

President Nicolas Sarkozy issued a statement expressing the "nation's condolences" to Cazenave's family and paying tribute to the 1.4 million French fighters killed in the Great War, as well as the 4.5 million injured.

Cazenave's death leaves a single surviving French World War I veteran, Lazare Ponticelli, who turned 110 in December.

[ANTHONY]

vive la france

[bradc]

I'm surprised any of them at all are still alive, I thought all WW1 veterans died a few years back.

I wonder if Biggles is still alive?

[Ryan]

Must admit that I was quite surprised any are alive. There are none alive in the UK. I think there might be 1 left alive in Canada and France.

[TAR]

we have 3 in the UK

At 111-years-old, Henry Allingham is the oldest survivor of World War I.

Mr Allingham is the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland in 1916, before joining the Royal Flying Corps and serving on the French front.

Now a resident at St. Dunstan's, a home in Brighton for ex-servicemen, he makes frequent trips to France to speak to school children.

During a visit to the graves of servicemen he said "all of us must remember them, always".

Henry John Patch (born June 17, 1898 in Combe Down, a village in Somerset, England) is, at the age of 109 years, 216 days, the second-oldest living man in the UK[1] and one of the last three surviving British veterans of the First World War still living in the country. He is, as of 2008, the last surviving Tommy to have served on the Western Front.

William "Bill" Stone (born 23 September 1900) is, at age 107, one of the few surviving British veterans of the First World War. He is the last known veteran living in Britain to have served in both the First and the Second World War.

Stone was born in Ledstone, Devon as one of fourteen children, and enlisted into the Royal Navy on his 18th birthday, and went on to serve both as a Stoker aboard the battlecruiser HMS Tiger. He remained in the navy after the war and went on to serve as a Chief Stoker during the Second World War, where he participated in the evacuation of Dunkirk on board the Halcyon class minesweeper HMS Salamander. He was also torpedoed twice, including once while serving aboard the Crown Colony class light cruiser HMS Newfoundland. After the war, he ran his own barbers shop, where he also sold cigarettes and smoking tobacco.


Amazing really!

[Ryan]

I stand corrected, there are three :) Very interesting facts above - what a life they must have led, especially the Battle of Jutland - that must have been epic! (and a pants brown time period I'm sure).

[Nick Mann]

That's a set of truly amazing lives in print. Difficult to imagine some of the things they have seen, even with the benefit of television.

They are people who have earned a place in history, I guess. It makes me feel a tad insignificant!

[Ryan]

Couldn't have phrased it better myself Nick :)

[amsoil]

Doesn't time march on. I remember seeing a dozen or so survivors from the Boer war march down the steps at the Albert Hall to a slower marching music than the rest. I'm pretty sure a couple were from an even earlier confilict but cannot remember what. I was young then!

[Ryan]

Doesn't time march on. I remember seeing a dozen or so survivors from the Boer war march down the steps at the Albert Hall to a slower marching music than the rest. I'm pretty sure a couple were from an even earlier confilict but cannot remember what. I was young then!

*Gasp* - the Boer War!!! Holy smoke that was a long time ago! As for an earlier conflict well - not quite sure about that. There was a first war of independence in South Africa in 1880-1881? Mind you there were a few wars going on around that time I guess.

[psbarham]

*Gasp* - the Boer War!!! Holy smoke that was a long time ago!

hey its not that long ago, my house was built by the crown for soldiers returning from the boer war, so they could have their house and 5 acres of land.

[Ryan]

OK well I'd have been lucky to meet any Boer War survivors as a 1 month old baby! :)

[william]

Boer war survivors? My great grandpappy must have missed a few then! (he was on the other side)

[amsoil]

Shhh So was mine!

[Ryan]

Boer war survivors? My great grandpappy must have missed a few then! (he was on the other side)

LoL :D Mine too, was involved in the Siege of Mafekeng. William, you must remember the story of Danie Theron? It's one of my favourite stories of bravery.

Reason I mention it, is that as a child I had a book entitled "South African Classics" or something like that. It was published by Struik. It featured people such as Harry Wolhuter, Wolraad Woltemade, Danie Theron and several others.

Wish I could get it again :(

[Ryan]

Here is another interesting character from that war:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Joubert_Duquesne

[william]

He sure was an interesting character, this Fritz Duquesne! I wonder how much of the story was fact and how much fiction. I do not remember that specific book (South African Classics) but read several books on Danie Theron's life.

[valleyforge1]

We have got a memorial in the town centre where I live to the guys that died in the Boer war from the East Lancashire regiment.Most people think its to commemorate the first world war but we have one of those to in a large park that is quite close to where I live. It seems weird now growing up that around Blackburn, Accrington and Bolton it was good picking ground for soliders at the time saying that most of them worked in the cotton mills ect that now are also disappering from site that at one time had such a massive impact on the landscape round here,