Last survivor of the Battle of Jutland dies

[BillC]

Henry Allingham, the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland, has died at the age of 113 (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090718/tuk-war-veteran-allingham-dies-at113-6323e80.html). A sad moment, he was also in the first intake of the newly-fledged Royal Air Force at its creation in 1918. There can't be many people that live to know a great-great-great grandchild.

[lionking]

Australia's last WWI veteran died in the past year ago IIRC. There can't be many more left at all, sadly.

As a kid I remember Boer War veterans in our Anzac Day march. Now no, or almost no WWI vets.

But not a bad innings by Henry.

[BillC]

I hadn't realised he was also the world's oldest man: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20090718/tuk-wwi-veteran-henry-allingham-dies-dba1618.html

[Major Major]

One survivor in Britain, perhaps a second.

One in Australia (a Briton).

Two in the U.S. (one a Canadian).

Our links to this great event are slowly being broken.

(I knew a man who served in the Army of Occupation; his mother's second husband was a relative of mine. He added two years to his age so he could go, but up until his death at 106 he was alert, lively, and informed. He did his own income tax.)

[lionking]

My grandfather and his two brothers served in France and Egypt as part of Australia's Light Horse Brigade. I am looking at a photograph of the boys in uniform as I am posting this.

[pgwenthold]

You can look on Wikipedia to get access to the SuperCentenarian list (110 years old or more). Last I saw, the confirmed list is down to about 75, although there haven't been too many added recently and I'm sure they are just missing.

In terms of "losing connections," the one I find interesting is how many are left that were born in the 1800s. It's under 200 by now.

[Skeptic]

You know, it's amazing sometimes how much closer we are, humanely, to history than one would think.

One of my professors, as a young man, interviewed an ancient old Frenchman... whose grandfather met Napoleon.

[lionking]

You know, it's amazing sometimes how much closer we are, humanely, to history than one would think.

One of my professors, as a young man, interviewed an ancient old Frenchman... whose grandfather met Napoleon.
I had the same tought when I recently read a biography of Wellington. He died in 1851, 100 years before I was born, so it was possible that someone straddled our lives, if you get what I mean.

[BeAChooser]

When we were kids, my friends and I refought the Battle of Jutland using a game published by Avalon Hill. Great game and very educational.

[ugot2bekidding]

When we were kids, my friends and I refought the Battle of Jutland using a game published by Avalon Hill. Great game and very educational.

Same here. In fact, that's what compelled me to click on this thread. Hearing about the passing of the last survivor elicits a weird sense of nostalgia (considering I was never there).

[zooterkin]

When I was at school, in the '70s, we had a memorial assembly around Remembrance Day. A number of old boys (alumni, in US terms, I think) would attend, most who had served in WWI, to remember their schoolfriends who had fallen. They must all be dead now, and it was only recently that I realised that WWII is now longer ago than WWI was then. I don't suppose that means much more than that I'm getting old, but the first World War must seem like ancient history to the current generation going through school. Seeing the last living links with an event like this dying gives one pause for thought. I wish I'd asked my grandparents and great grandfather (he lived to be 104) so many questions when I had the chance.