The last WWI vet (again)

[scott_sanford]

It seems that Claude Choules (b. 3 March 1901) has passed away, on May fifth. He could give an eyewitness account of Scapa Flow. He served in both World Wars. He was Australian. And, it seems at the moment, the last World War I veteran alive anywhere.

We've lost the last German Hun, the last American Doughboy, the last British Tommy, and the last Canadian veteran already. This appears to be the whole set, alas.

Comments

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Bzzt! Sorry, the judges won't accept that answer. Mr. Choules was the last combat veteran of World War I; the last veteran of World War I, who served in the WRAF catering corps, is still alive.

I cannot imagine why Ms. Green has been disappeared by so many media outlets...

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

The two male non-combat veterans discussed in the article I linked have since died. God bless them all.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

And indeed I see you have identified the also non-combatant Mr. Babcock as the last Canadian veteran, as did the media on his death. And yet Ms. Green generally gets bupkis.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Your Google-Fu is strong. Thank you; I was unaware of Florence Green and her war service. Yes, the WRAF definitely counts, and keeping an officers' mess running is as much part of winning a war as throwing lead at Germans.

The usual source claims she is the last known WWI veteran, and you know what this is worth. (Józef Kowalski saw action in the Polish-Soviet War, not WWI.)

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have known about her if I hadn't been editing a book on women's military service around the time her service was brought to public attention.

The double standard is really apparent in the media treatment of her and of Babcock, who was still in training when the Armistice came.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

When I saw the "Last World War I veteran dies" all over the media I was all "Oh, no, how did I miss Florence Green's death?" and it turns out that they were the ones missing her life.

Obviously I have A Lot of Thoughts on this topic, and too many medicines going to express them coherently; my apologies for the multitude of posts in your comments.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

You'll notice that I put "(again)" in the title. I went through this when we lost Harry Patch, and possibly when Frank Buckles went. It wouldn't surprise me all that much for one or two more centenarians to be around somewhere, poorly documented.

A bit over ten years ago I passed along a news story about the death of the very last person still collecting survivor's benefits from a Civil War veteran in the family. (He'd joined the Army under-age, then as an old fart married a woman much too young for him.) It turned out that, no, there was another Civil War widow still out there. So I'm ready to believe that in a large population even rare outliers happen in higher numbers than we expect.