13 April 2007

Last British Officer of WWI dies

Philip Mayne, who was thought to be the last surviving British officer of WWI died last Monday (9 April) aged 107. He had been commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in September 1918.

There are now just six British WWI veterans remaining (of which three live in Australia). There are believed to be 31 veterans still alive worldwide. 20 known veterans have died since the beginning of the year.

3 comments:

elasticwaistbandlady said...

Wait, if Philip Mayne was the last, then how is it that you report that 6 more are alive? Maybe I missed something.

Anyway, sad to see an end to an era, but these gents deserve an eternal reward.

jams o donnell said...

AH ewbl, he was the last officer. The other survivors were privates or NCOs. THe way they are dying there probablly will only be a handful left at the end of the year.

elasticwaistbandlady said...

I knew I was probably the one missing something.

By the way, I suck at those puzzles where you have to circle what's wrong, also.