Last Known Soldier To Have Fought In World War I

Harry Patch

DID YOU KNOW THAT . . . The last known soldier to have fought in the brutal trench warfare of World War I was Britain's Harry Patch, who died in July 25, 2009 aged 111? Born in Somerset in June 17, 1898 and grew up in Combe Down, near Bath, Patch was recruited in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry where he was a machine-gunner from June to September 1917 fighting in the trenches at the 1917 Battle of Passchendaele in which more than 70,000 British troops died. He was 16 when World War I broke out and fought at the frontline immediately after six months training. He was the number two in the Lewis gun team and his role was to carry and assemble spare parts for the machine gun and ensure it worked. On September 22, 1917, a shell attack exploded above Patch's head killing three of his closest comrades. He was hit by a shrapnel in the lower abdomen but survived. In 1999, Patch was awarded the Legion D'Honneur medal by the French government, and dedicated it to his three fallen comrades.

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