'The Last Tommy'

[donegal]

I missed 'The Last Tommy' on BBC1 on tuesday.

What happened?

How many of them are alive now and what age are they?

[Octavius]

Haven't you already asked this, with several good answers.....?

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/History-and-Myths/Question163650.html

[donegal]

yes i have but i didnt see the one on tuesday, was that one anygood?

[delboy3]

Hi donegal, at the end of the show it was said that only 4 tommies are still with us - the oldest is 109. I only saw the last half of the show and I liked the story of the despised lieutenant 'taken for a walk' in the woods by some of his own soliders, and never to be seen again...

It was also good to see one tommy, who had said he hated Germans ever since and never wanted to meet one again, changing his mind and meeting up with one (albeit a 'French' German) on the spot where his comrades were killed by a shell in 1917.

May they never be forgotten.

[bernardo]

They started with 27 veterans who were interviewed at the start of the process of making the programmes 2 years ago; 13 of them were still alive by the time they finished filming last year, and 4 out of the 27 are still alive now - although only 2 of them were well enough to take part in the film. The 4 out of 27 who are still alive only applies to the number who were interviewed; other sources say that the total number of British veterans who are still alive is approximately 9.

The 2 in the film who are still alive are Harry Patch (107) and Alfred Anderson (109) who is the oldest man in Scotland. Harry Patch went on a visit to the Western Front and met a veteran of the German Army (who was conscripted from the Alsace region and is now French). It was the first time he had met a German close up since 1918. He did not want to go to visit the place where his 3 colleagues were killed on 22nd September 1917 because it still had painful memories - but he changed his mind at the last minute and went there to lay a wreath for them.

One other thing in the 2nd film was the 103rd birthday of Claude Choules (I think) who celebrated in Australia with his children, 22 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren. Arthur Halestrap died in April 2004 aged 105.