Harry Patch
The Last, "British Tommy."

Sadly, the last surviving soldier that had first hand knowledge of the carnage and horrors of fighting in the trenches of the, “Great War,” (1914-1918) has past away aged 111 years and 38 days and, for 7 days was Britain’s oldest man after the death of fellow veteran Henry Allingham aged 113 years.

Henry (Harry) John Patch was born at Combe Down, a small village near Bath, on 17 June, 1898.

He left school at the age of 15 and worked as an apprentice plumber until he was conscripted into the Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry (DCLI) at the age of 18 year.

Harry was trained as a machine gunner and embarked from Folkstone in May 1917 for Rheims.

On his 19th Birthday Harry found himself in the trenches, just in time for the Battle of Passchendaele. The battle lasted three months, gaining just five miles of ruined ground at the cost of more than 300,000 British lives.

Harry Patches’ war in the trenches ended at 22:30 hours on the 22nd of Septemeber1917 when returning to the British lines through, "no mans land," he and three members of his machine gun crew were caught out in the open by an enemy air burst shell which exploded killing 3 of his comrades and Harry was wounded in the groin by shrapnel.

Harry spent 12 months in hospital and was convalescing on the Isle of Wight when the armistice was signed.

For eighty years Harry refused to speak about the war but ended his silence on his 100th birthday. Harry maintained that his, Remembrance Day was the 22nd September the date that he lost his three best friends at Passchendaele.

Harry thought of himself as an ordinary man who led an ordinary life and that his experiences of the Great War, the war to end all wars, was no worse than the other soldiers that had fought in the trenches.

Harry Patch was the last physical link with an event that should never be forgotten.