Harry Patch - The Last Tommy

[mulberry]

Hello Ag I cannot get through to talking Scot as my new password is not being accepted. Had this trouble last year so gave up but would like to get back on the board. Had useful dialogue up until last year. Can you help ?
rachel

[mulberry]

oops what has happened seem to have got crossed line.. Well Ann in the UK I was interested in your comments about Harry Patch. I too watched his funeral and it brought back memories of my old dad who served in the first WW with the Scottish Rifles. My dad would have been two years older than Harry had he been alive and it is the strangest feeling but I just feel that I have lost the final link with him.
rachel

[Ann In the UK]

I just feel that I have lost the final link with him

It's so sad isn't it. I'm sure he probably didn't realise how significant he was to some of us.

It's hard to imagine a time when we'll be mourning our last links with the vererans of WWII, the Falklands, Iraq (1 and 2) or Afghanistan.

[LesleyB]

Just found this on BBCi:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Episode_3/

The Last Tommy - Episode 3
Documentary telling the stories of Britain's last surviving First World War veterans, known as Tommies.

Harry Patch was the last British veteran who fought in the trenches during the First World War. When he laid down his rifle at the end of the war in November 1918, he hoped never to see another shot fired in anger. Twenty years later he was under attack again, this time when a German bomber strafed him while he worked as a fireman during air raids on Bath in 1941. Harry and five other remarkable First World War veterans, all in their second century at the time of recording, describe their lives after the Armistice of November 1918.

Duration: 60 minutes
Available until: 6:59pm Sunday 16th August 2009

[Currie]

The last widows of both Union and Confederate US Civil War veterans died only a few years ago. I imagine there would be quite a few WW1 veterans widows still living.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... idow_x.htm

Alan

[Ann In the UK]

Interesting lady. She married him at 21 - when he was 81, and they had a son. What an odd couple to find in your family tree

I imagine there must be several remaining widows of the Great War somewhere about with stories to tell. I know of none though, these days. I used to know plenty, but they're all gone now. I knew a lady whose 20 year old husband was killed in the first days of the war. She was pregnant with their son at the time whom, of course he wasn't destined to meet. She raised him alone, never remarried and referred to him as her 'hubby' all the time as though she'd spent her life with him. I suppose in a way, she had. She was well into her 80s when she died. Heartbreaking tale.

Regards,
Ann

[scooter]

Just found this on BBCi:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Episode_3/

The Last Tommy - Episode 3
Documentary telling the stories of Britain's last surviving First World War veterans, known as Tommies.

Harry Patch was the last British veteran who fought in the trenches during the First World War. When he laid down his rifle at the end of the war in November 1918, he hoped never to see another shot fired in anger. Twenty years later he was under attack again, this time when a German bomber strafed him while he worked as a fireman during air raids on Bath in 1941. Harry and five other remarkable First World War veterans, all in their second century at the time of recording, describe their lives after the Armistice of November 1918.

Duration: 60 minutes
Available until: 6:59pm Sunday 16th August 2009

I remember seeing this before, a very powerful documentary, and considering the subject matter, rather beautiful. I hope they show this in schools over the years.

The last widows of both Union and Confederate US Civil War veterans died only a few years ago. I imagine there would be quite a few WW1 veterans widows still living.

I couldn't work this out at first, but then I got the story. Landing a 21 year old wife and then fathering a child at 81 is an achievement in itself, let along surviving the American Civil War! You could imagine them being guests on Jerry Springer these days. :D