Harry Patch

Harry Patch in 2007 at the age of 109

Henry John "Harry" Patch (born June 17, 1898 in Combe Down , Somerset , † July 25, 2009 in Wells ) was a British war veteran and supercentenarian . As the last surviving member of the British Army of the First World War (The last fighting Tommy ) , Patch was a sought-after contemporary witness who received numerous awards. From July 18, 2009 until his death, at the age of 111 years and 38 days, Harry Patch was the oldest living man in Europe.

biography

Harry Patch was born in the village of Combe Down near Bath, the son of a stonemason . At the age of 15, Patch began training as a plumber in Bath.

After the outbreak of World War I, Patch was drafted as a soldier in October 1916 and served as a machine gunner in the rank of private in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry . In June 1917 his unit landed in France; a month later she was used in the Third Battle of Flanders near Ypres . On September 22, 1917, Patch was badly wounded by a shell, after which he returned to England in December 1917.

After the end of the war, Harry Patch resumed his work as a plumber in Bristol . Among other things, he was involved in the construction of the Wills Memorial Building at the University of Bristol . Patch quickly rose to the position of managing director of an installation company. He held this position until his retirement in 1963.

During World War II , Patch, who was already too old to be on the frontline, served in the British Home Guard , where he would have been used again as a machine gunner in the event of a German invasion. In addition, he helped out with the local fire department , where he participated in the extinguishing work during the Baedeker Blitz in Bath.

Harry Patch married Ada Billington in 1919, with whom he was married for 58 years until her death in 1976. They had two sons who died in 1984 and 2002. Harry Patch married two more times, surviving all spouses.

Memories as a war veteran

Patch had been silent about his experiences during the First World War for decades. Apart from a private visit to Omaha Beach in the early 1980s, he avoided meeting veterans. Only on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of the First World War did the centenarian comment on his war experiences in the BBC documentary Veterans .

In the following years, Patch became a sought-after contemporary witness through numerous interviews and appearances in documentary films. He was portrayed by the BBC in the documentary The Last Tommy .

In autumn 2004 there was a widely noticed Patchs meeting in Ypres with Charles Kuentz , one of the last German veterans of the First World War. Patch returned to Ypres again on the 90th anniversary of the Third Battle of Flanders.

In August 2007 Harry Patch published his autobiography The Last Fighting Tommy together with the historian Richard van Emden . A year later Patch was honored by the poet laureate Andrew Motion with the five-part poem The Five Acts of Harry Patch . At the first public reading of the poem, Prince Charles appeared as the keynote speaker. The poem was set to music on the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War by Peter Maxwell Davies . On November 11, 2008, the anniversary of the 1918 armistice, Harry Patch, along with World War II veterans Henry Allingham and Bill Stone, took center stage at the memorial service at the London Cenotaph .

After Allingham's death on July 18, 2009, Harry Patch was the oldest living Briton. But he died a week later in the wells nursing home where he had spent the last years of his life.

At Harry Patch's funeral, who had previously turned down a state funeral at Westminster Abbey that Prime Minister Gordon Brown had offered him as an old man , marched behind the coffin decorated with the Union Jack on the way to Wells Cathedral near Bristol, alongside soldiers of the British Army on Patchs Request also two soldiers from France, Belgium and Germany. Despite the rain, thousands of applauding people lined the path while 111 bells rang out. The funeral was broadcast live by the BBC and, due to the overcrowding of the cathedral, also on large screens in front of the church. The charge of the German embassy read from the Bible about forgiveness and a girl sang the anti-war song Tell me where the flowers are . The royal family was represented by Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

The British Royalty and Prime Minister Gordon Brown recognized Patch as a "great man"; the merits of the generation of World War II veterans would never be forgotten.

Honors

Harry Patch has received several medals and decorations. For his services in the First World War, he received the British War Medal and the Victory Medal . After World War II, Patch received the Defense Medal for services on the home front. He was also awarded the National Service Medal and Hors de combat Medal commemorative medals.

On his 101st birthday, Harry Patch was named a Knight of the French Legion of Honor. On March 9, 2009 he was appointed Officer of the Legion of Honor (Officier de la Légion d'Honneur) . In 2008 Patch was awarded the Belgian Leopold Order.

In 2005 the University of Bristol recognized Patch with a Master of Arts degree . Patch was also a guest of honor at the reopening of the refurbished Wills Memorial Building in February 2008. In July 2008, he was awarded Freedom of the City honorary citizenship in his hometown of Wells.

On August 7th, 2009, the British band Radiohead released a song to commemorate Harry Patch. The band had recorded the piece in a monastery a few weeks before Patch's death. It goes back to an encounter between band leader Thom Yorke and Harry Patch a few years earlier during an interview. According to Yorke, Patch's eyewitness accounts made a deep impression on him and prompted him to record the song Harry Patch (In memory of) .

literature

• Harry Patch, Richard van Emden: The Last Fighting Tommy: The Life of Harry Patch, the Oldest Surviving Veteran of the Trenches. Bloomsbury, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7475-9401-7 .

See also

The last World War I veterans in other countries included:

• Florence Green (1901–2012), last British veteran of the First World War
• Frank Buckles (1901–2011), last American veteran of the First World War
• Claude Stanley Choules (1901–2011), British veteran of the First and Second World Wars (Australian citizen from 1926)
• Henry Allingham (1896–2009), last veteran of the Royal Navy of the First World War
• Louis de Cazenave (1897–2008), last World War I veteran who took part in the fighting as a French citizen
• Lazare Ponticelli (1897–2008), last veteran of the First World War in the French Foreign Legion (French citizen from 1939)
• Franz Künstler (1900–2008), last surviving veteran of Austria-Hungary during World War I (German citizen from 1946)
• Erich Kästner (1900–2008), last surviving German soldier of the First World War
• Charles Kuentz (1897–2005), last surviving German soldier from Alsace during the First World War (French citizen from 1919)

• List of the oldest men

Individual evidence

1. ↑ BBC News : WWI veteran patch dies aged 111 from July 25, 2009.
2. ↑ The Last Tommy Gallery , material accompanying the 2005 BBC film (accessed July 26, 2009).
3. ^ The Daily Telegraph: 'With a handshake we said more about peace than anything else ever could' of November 14, 2004.
4. ↑ BBC News: Poem honors WWI veteran aged 109, March 7, 2008.
5. ^ The Guardian: Last survivors of first world war salute the fallen of November 12, 2008.
6. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung: Last British veteran of the First World War died on July 25, 2009.
7. ↑ Marco Evers: Peaceful Warriors. Global Village: Great Britain bore the last World War I veterans in Wells , in Der Spiegel, August 10, 2009, No. 33, p. 99
8. ↑ Der Standard: Last veteran living in Great Britain dead on July 25, 2009.
9. ↑ Proof of awards in the National Archive (accessed July 26, 2009).
10. ↑ BBC News: WWI veteran receives French award March 9, 2009.
11. ↑ The Guardian: Soldiering on at 110: Belgium honors veteran of western front , 23 September 2008.
12. ↑ University of Bristol press release dated February 21, 2008.
13. ↑ Radiohead website: Archive link ( Memento of the original from August 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated August 5, 2009. 

Web links

• Biography on BBC.co.uk (English)
• Obituary BBC (English)
• Obituary the Daily Telegraph (English)