My great uncle Art was in WWI and was gassed within three weeks of arriving in France. He lived but his health was never good and my family always said he got the short end of the stick. The Army said he hadn't been in the 6 months required to be considered a soldier and so he never got anything for it. They also ruled that his health problems were not service related so he was pretty much on his own.

My own knowledge of history suggests that WWI vets in general were never given a lot of what the government promised. Let's hope that's not repeated with those in Iraq and Afghanistan right now.

Saturday 25th July

Since we were talking about WW1 survivors the other day, I thought I'd bring this thread up to date with the latest news on the subject.

Earlier this morning another WW1 veteran passed away; Harry Patch, at the age of 111.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8168691.stm

He was the last surviving British soldier to have served in the trenches, having fought and been badly wounded at the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. 70,000 British soldiers died at Passchendaele - an estimated 850,000 people were killed on both sides in that battle alone. That story can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Passchendaele

Like Henry Allingham earlier on this thread, Harry Patch devoted himself to maintaining the memory of his comrades' sacrifice, in the hope that it not be repeated.

There is now only one surviving British veteran from WW1. I'm having difficulty finding information on survivors from other countries.

- C