Last WWI combat veteran dies in his sleep

The last combat veteran of the First World War, Claude Choules, died in his sleep in a nursing home in Perth, Australia a few weeks after his 110th birthday according to an article sent to us by ROS;

Mr Choules, was born in Wyre Piddle, Worcestershire in 1901. During a 41-year career in the Royal Navy that spanned both wars, he served on HMS Revenge, witnessing the surrender of the German Imperial Navy in 1918 and the scuttling of the fleet in Scapa Flow.

From the Washington Post;

World War I was raging when Choules began training with the British Royal Navy, just one month after he turned 14. In 1917, he joined the battleship HMS Revenge, from which he watched the 1918 surrender of the German High Seas Fleet, the main battle fleet of the German Navy during the war.

Choules and another Briton, Florence Green, became the war’s last known surviving service members after the death of American Frank Buckles in February, according to the Order of the First World War, a U.S.-based group that tracks veterans.

Choules was the last known surviving combatant of the war. Green, who turned 110 in February, served as a waitress in the Women’s Royal Air Force.

You can see his last interview at this link.

Blue skies are ahead, Mr. Choules.

Category: Blue Skies