Last surviving veteran of First World War dies aged 110

[Sal Paradise]

07 Feb 2012

Florence Green, the world's last surviving First World War veteran has died, marking the end of an era in British history.

Before her death she said: ''I enjoyed my time in the WRAF. There were plenty of people at the airfields where I worked and they were all very good company.

''I would work every hour God sent but I had dozens of friends on the base and we had a great deal of fun in our spare time. In many ways I had the time of my life.

''I met dozens of pilots and would go on dates. I had the opportunity to go up in one of the planes but I was scared of flying.

''It was a lovely experience and I'm very proud.''

Her story came to light after Andrew Holmes, a British correspondent for the US-based Gerontology Research Group, traced her name using the National Archive.

Mr Holmes tracks and validates the ages of people over 110 and also keeps track of British men and women who are older than 107.

He was stunned to locate a service record on the National Archive for Florence Beatrice Patterson, the grandmother's maiden name.

Mr Holmes traced the records further and was surprised to find Florence had joined the WRAF in September 1918 - two months before the war ended on November 11, 1918.

 

[Sal Paradise]

Obit

The last veteran of World War I was a waitress, and for 90 years no one knew her name.

Mrs. Green, who joined the R.A.F. as a teenager shortly before war’s end, worked in an officer’s mess on the home front. Her service was officially recognized only in 2010, after a researcher unearthed her records in Britain’s National Archives.

That Mrs. Green went unrecognized for so long owes partly to the fact that she served under her maiden name, Florence Patterson, and partly to the fact that she conducted herself, by all accounts, with proper British restraint, rarely if ever flaunting her service.

It also owes to the fact that her life followed the prescribed trajectory for women of her era: by the time the 20th century had run its course, Mrs. Green had long since disappeared into marriage, motherhood and contented anonymity.

With the death in May of Claude Stanley Choules, an Englishman who served aboard a Royal Navy battleship, Mrs. Green became the last known person, male or female, to have served in the war on either side.

Her death, at a nursing home in King’s Lynn, in eastern England, was announced on the Web site of the Order of the First World War, an organization based in Florida that keeps track of veterans.

In the spate of interviews she gave after her existence was discovered, Mrs. Green expressed quiet pride in her service. She also recalled approvingly the courtly behavior of the officers she served.

“It was very pleasant, and they were lovely,” she once told an interviewer. “Not a bit of bother.”

But though she was aware of her historical position as the war’s last veteran, Mrs. Green was philosophical about the war itself, one of the defining events of modern history, in which more than 20 million people died.

“It seems,” she remarked to The Independent last year, on the occasion of her 110th birthday, “like such a long time ago now.”

The daughter of Frederick Patterson and the former Sarah Neal, Florence Beatrice Patterson was born in London on Feb. 19, 1901, and moved to King’s Lynn as child.

In September 1918, two months before the war ended, Florence, then 17, joined the Women’s Royal Air Force. An auxiliary branch of the R.A.F., it had been created not long before to help free men for combat duty by recruiting women to work as mechanics and drivers and in other noncombat jobs.

Made a steward in the officers’ mess, she was assigned first to the Narborough Aerodrome and later to the R.A.F. base at Marham, both in England’s Norfolk region.

She served the officers meals and tea, and in free moments she would roam the base, admiring the men. “I met dozens of pilots and would go on dates,” Mrs. Green told The Daily Mail in 2010.

But when they offered to take her aloft in their craft — Sopwith Camels and other biplanes — she demurred. She was afraid to fly.

At Marham, Mrs. Green witnessed what was undoubtedly the most benign bombing of the war. On Nov. 11, 1918, when armistice was declared, the Marham fliers celebrated by swooping down on the Narborough airfield, a few miles away, and letting loose bags of flour. The Narborough boys quickly retaliated by pelting Marham with bags of soot.

Mrs. Green, who remained in the Women’s R.A.F. until July 1919, married Walter Green in 1920. Mr. Green, a railway porter, died in the 1970s.

Her survivors include two daughters, May and June; a son, Bob; four grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

Mrs. Green’s wartime experience remained unsung until 2009, when an English newspaper, The Lynn News and Advertiser, wrote about her 108th birthday. Andrew Holmes, a British researcher for the Gerontology Research Group, an American organization that keeps statistics on people who live well past 100, then located her service records in the National Archives, resulting in Mrs. Green’s recognition as a veteran the next year.

At her funeral next week, The Associated Press reported, the Union Jack will drape the coffin.

Another article here -
http://www.orderfirstworldwar.com/the-salient/2011/06/florence-beatrice-green-last-veteran-of-world-war-i.htm

 

[koifarm]

Sal, wonderful post man, well done and quite interesting for sure...time goes on, but it's always good to remember those who made our lives what they are today...thanks Sal....as always...
Bill

 

[Kirkus51]

On another forum I was flabbergasted to find out John Tyler, born in 1790 and our 10th president has two living grandchildren. That's right two grandchildren. He had a second wife and fathered his last child at the age of 63. That son had a second wife 36 years his junior and his last child was born when he was 75.

Here's an excerpt from an interview.

It’s a really interesting story that you’re still, you know, around. Could you just explain how this happened? How someone born in 1790 still has living grandchildren?
Well, he was a good man! [laughs] Both my grandfather — the president — and my father, were married twice. And they had children by their first wives. And their first wives died, and they married again and had more children. And my father was 75 when I was born, his father was 63 when he was born. John Tyler had fifteen children — eight by his first wife, seven by his second wife — so it does get very confusing. I really do not know — it’s amazing how families drift apart. When I was a child, I did know most of the descendents, but as you get more generations down the line, it’s hard to keep track of everybody.

 

[Sal Paradise]

Wow!!!

 

[Chris in NC]

Sal, thanks for that, brother. People can't begin to understand what a milestone her death is.

It won't be too many more years and the last surviving veteran of WWII will pass, followed a few years later by the last surviving veteran of the Korean war. Then, years many years later it will be the last surviving veteran of the Viet Nam war, and many years after that the last surviving member of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I'd like to think we'll reach a point where there will be no surviving veterans of any foreign wars... but the way things are going, that may not happen. Hell, the way things are going, we're likely to have another re-enactment of the Civil War - with live ammo. :flag:

 

[Sal Paradise]

"People can't begin to understand what a milestone her death is." Chris.

Exactly my thought, Chris. I mean, the living memory of WW1 is now finally gone. The last person who actually remembers being in The War to End all Wars has died. WW1 is now 100% history.

It's over, everywhere.

 

[Kirkus51]

I read (or saw it on TV) that right around 2000 there were more WWII vets dying of old age on a daily basis than casualties during the actual war.