MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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It seems that Harry Patch has passed on.
RIP Harry
RIP and Thank You.
Only one Britain left now who served in WW1.
RIP Harry
RIP.
Only one Britain left now who served in WW1.
I thought Harry Patch was the last?
Think he was the last who fought on the western front.
Yeah - he was the last survivor that fought in the trenches - the real killing fields of the Great War.
As above - thank you - you were more of a man than almost any of us could ever hope to be.
A sad, sad day and an end of a era for all of us.
Let's not forget what they did for us all 😥
RIP you've earned it.
Glass raised.
Rest in peace, old chap!
Oh no.
That's really upsetting.
RIP Harry.
I shall have to raise a glass of west country cider tonight/today.
RIP.
And in memory of my grandfather, MC at Ypres.
oohhh!! 🙁 i just read about this on BBC on return from my ride. You chose a lovely day to go out on 🙂 I came to see you and your friends last november in london, was a nice if rather moving occasion. Perhaps one day if were really lucky people will not have to be as brave as you. Rest In Peace x
Went to Paschendaele/Ypres a couple of weeks ago. It's a very sobering place. It's little wonder that those who survived didn't speak much about it, my grandfather included. We all owe an enormous debt to Harry Patch and the others.
Tyne Cot cemetery has a wall with approx 30,000 names carved into it, and the Menin Gate in Ypres has more than twice that number. Every name represents a soldier with no known grave. And The Somme is worse. Hopefully nothing like that will ever happen again.
I shall raise a glass to Harry tonight
RIP Harry
Remember them all. All killed and wounded old and current wars.
In memory to my great grandfather... Hill 60 ww1
http://www.lightinfantry.org.uk/regiments/rgbwli/rgbw_pruett.htm
By a strange coincidence I was just leafing through "Forgotten Voices of the Great War".
They're not forgotten here.
R.I.P , and thank you , and all the un named, because they are not named , dont mean we forget them.we houner them by speaking there names....................
redthunder - impressive website
RIP Mr.Patch - end of an era.
One of the most poignant of memories was driving north through France about 15 years ago. My 2 y.o. son needed to stretch his legs, so we stopped at a war grave cemetery. We took Robert out of his car seat, and walked him round the graveyard. A beautiful sunny evening. Walking back to the car we noticed a small door set into the gatepost, containing the book listing all the graves. It was a re-worked originally German cemetery, the line had later moved and passed through it and a trench had been dug through the graves. It was a tint graveyard, beside a quiet country road. It is one of hundreds.
We had Governments that would require us to do these abhorent things and a society that (initially?) accepted it.
lest we forget
Harry Patch, R.I.P
Big Respect
My Uncle David was killed on the Somme in 1915 his brother, we have only found out as my Uncle Jimmy never talked about this, fought for the British in WWI in Arabia where he operated as an interpreter. He then immigrated and led the Canadian Highlanders on the Dieppe Landings in WWII! Incredibly he then returned home (His only wound being a bayonet stab from one of his own men who tried to run away) and was a high ranking officer in the police in Ontario. Now this is the strange bit, when he died his funeral was attended by large numbers of police and convicts. We have only just discovered the reason for this; apparently every single person he ever convicted he then spent time talking to them in prison to get them to 'mend their ways' due to his Christian values.
Last of a different breed I guess (or a glutton for punishment!)
Good to reflect.
So long fella - you've earned the rest
I'll never forget - or let my kids forget - what you & many, many like you gave us
RIP old feller
Both my granddads were in the trenches, both survived but one got a dose of gas and was never well, died the 1950s, grandma made it till the 90s, was widowed longer than she was married to him. I knew the other but he never said anything about it, though I still have his billy can and a German bayonet he brought back.
We keep saying never again, but it hasn't stopped.
Different breed in some ways maybe, but we are still producing people capable of great sacrifices, shouldn't forget them either.
He had a long innings. Unlike the youngsters who were needlessly slaughtered. 🙁
A case of the old lie Hora I'm afraid - Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori 😥
Should be a state funeral really. Considering what being the Last Tommy represented, it's unthinkable that he won't get one.
Shame.
hats off to the lot of them, brave men and women who gave everything.
There's an audio presentation of Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est" in the Ypres museum. Tear jerking. Even the teenagers, and there were plenty about were silenced by it. It was good to see so many young folk, of all nationalities going round; education will hopefully stop a repetition.
Very sad day. Will raise a glass to this gentleman, the last of a special breed.
Tyne Cot last August. I've got to admit I was fighting back tears. The sacrifices made in World War I and II to keep us free 🙁
[i]What passing bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of good-byes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds[/i]
Went to the Somme memorial to those with no known grave - 72,000 allied soldiers.
Extraordinary.
I will be paying my respects at Cathedral Green tomorrow.
Roads are being shut tonight with thousands expected to line the route.
The bells of Wells Cathedral will toll 111 times to mark every year of Harry's life at 1100. It is expected this will take around 50 minutes.
[url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/somerset/hi/people_and_places/newsid_8184000/8184984.stm ]BBC link[/url]
[b]Harry Patch, R.I.P[/b]