world war one

[donegal]

is there any one still alive who was in world war one?

if so what age are they

[lastresort]

The Sunday Telegraph interviewed the four remaining British survivors from WWI a few weeks ago. It was a two page spread. 30th October, I think. I am sorry, it went in the recycling yesterday.

There is an electronic version of the Sun Tel, it may still be available.

[delboy3]

There is a short series on BBC1 (first episode on last night) called The Last Tommys; filmed in 2003 it stated that there were 27 British ex-WW1 soldiers still alive and interviewed a few of them. I think the oldest was 109 which, if still going, would make him 111 today.

[Carol Anne]

I watched that programme and cried my eyes out. God only knows what these grand old gents think of the society we live in today given what they had no choice in when they were young.

[sophieb]

There was a bit the Daily Express last Saturday and there is about 9 men left from WWI and they are all about 107,109 etc.

[jake-the-peg]

Oh I don't know Carol Anne

The society they lived in was pretty uncaring no NHS - if you were poor and fell ill, you died.

If they'd have been born a hundred years before their chances of making it to over a hundred would have been pretty slim!

Crime was pretty rampant in Victorian England despite the death penalty, Jack the Ripper? Mary Ann Cotton is thought to have killed 20 by 1873 and you don't want to know about John Haigh (Really! don't go and google him just after lunch)

And all our children get chance of the sort of education that most of them could only have dreamt of in the few short years before they had to start work.

I certainly wouldn't want to have lived then would you?

[Octavius]

No one knows how many veterans of the Great War are still alive. In 1918 and 1919 they came home, their bodies and souls scratched and wounded. Today just a few of them are still alive. In a couple of years time all eyewitnesses of the First World War will be dead.

See this article:

http://www.aftermathww1.com/jackdavis2.asp

Also:

7 June 2005: BRITAIN'S oldest veteran of the First World War toasted his 109th birthday yesterday. Henry Allingham, who in 2003 received the L�gion d'Honneur, the highest military award France has to offer, joined friends for a party in his home town of Eastbourne.

Hermann D�rnemann became 111 years old and was the oldest man in the world. He contracted pneumonia and died on Wednesday, 2nd February 2005, just three months before his 112th birthday. D�rnemann was born in 1893 in Germany, in the city of Essen. While serving on the front in World War 1 he suffered a gunshot in his right upper arm. Therefore he was excused from military service in World War II.

More here

[smudge]

I was also in tears watching The last Tommy. What a brilliant documentary.

[bernardo]

In the last few weeks I have read various sources saying that there are 7 or 4 or 9 British veteran soldiers surviving. The "The Last Tommy" programme was filmed between 2003 (when 27 were alive) and June 2004 (when 13 were alive). There are now c.9 of them. The oldest is Henry Allingham, who is 109 and 5 months. The oldest in the programme last night was Alfred Anderson, who was 107 when it was filmed and is 109 now. Many of the men in last night's programme will have died since filming; we will probably be given an update on each of them in episode 2 next week. I do not know how many WW1 veterans there are still alive from other countries.

In comparison, the world's last surviving veteran soldier of the Boer War (1899-1902) was George Ives, who died on 14th April 1993 aged 111. On this basis, the last ever WW1 veteran should probably survive until about 2009.

The last surviving veteran soldier of the American Civil War (1861-65) was John B. Salling, who died in 1959 aged 113, although I understand that there are now doubts about the authenticity of this case.

[bernardo]

P.S. Incidentally, the probability of surviving from one birthday to the next becomes less than 50% after the age of 105.

[jake-the-peg]

I've heard that there are 6,000 people in the UK over 100 but only 68 worldwide over 110.

[zebra]

There are just four veterans still alive according to the BBC1 documentary.

[Octavius]

That would be British Veterans zebra?

In terms of supercentenarian's generally (people aged 110 and above) currently we have:

Elizabeth 'Lizzie" Bolden (USA) who was born in 1890 and is still kicking around (not the bucket obviously) that makes her 115 years old and the odest living woman in the world from August 2005 (GBoWR)

Emilio Mercado del Toro (Puerto Rico) oldest living man who was born in 1891 (GBoWR from 17 Jan 05).

The longest documented lifespan is the 122 years 164 days of Jeanne Calment (1875�1997). While her stories of meeting Vincent Van Gogh or attending the 1885 funeral of Victor Hugo might have been embellished, her life was documented in the records of her native city of Arles, France, beyond reasonable doubt.

Although a recent (but seemingly unproven) claim in 2003 was that a 124 year old woman was alive and well and living in Chechnya. Simlarly in 2003 the Domincian Rep claimed that a woman had just celebrated her 128th birthday but no official record of her birth could be found to authenticate the claim. Both claims have been rejected by the Guiness Book of World Records.

[Octavius]

Anyway, getting back to the question.

Looking at the list on this page it would appear that the oldest survivor is Pawel Parniak of Poland who was born on 27 Feb 1890 - although Mr del Toro (see above) also appears on the list so the claim may be unauthenticated.

UKs oldest survivor is Henry Allingham who was born on 6 June 1896 in Clapham, London. Also believed to be Britains oldest living man.

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

[feelap]

There are 9 soldiers surving. It was in the Times today (10/11/05)

[ann_h]

A small doubt on the real age of a couple of these men, though - quite a few of those who went to fight lied about their age, believing in the cause, and were as young as 14 when they went to get slaughtered. Shame on us.