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Eternal Memory
Chief Petty Officer Claude Choules, who died in Australia on May 5 aged 110, was the last surviving man to have seen action in the First World War.
On the outbreak of war in 1914 he tried to join the British Army as a boy bugler by lying about his age. Instead he was sent in 1915 to the boys' training ship Mercury, under the headmastership of the athlete CB Fry, moored in the Hamble river. He then completed his training in the former 140-gun wooden Impregnable, berthed in the Hamoaze. He was still there when he heard the news of the battle of Jutland.
In October 1917 he joined the 40,000-ton battleship Revenge as a boy seaman, first class. The ship had fired more than a hundred 15in shells at Jutland, and Choules's next ship was another veteran of the battle, the fast battleship Valiant.
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2 comments:
When I visited Australia I went to the War Memorial in Melbourne. There I read about the many Austalian heroes of WWII. It was very moving. I remember reading about the battle of Jutland.
May God have mercy upon this veteran and upon all who have died serving their countries.
Memory Eternal.
What a life!
[speaking of his service in WWII] "his personal evacuation plan was to cycle 300 miles . . ."
And he was married for 75 years.
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