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Remembered Today:

Last Reunion?


Terry Denham

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Report from today's Sunday Times.....

A final reunion of British WW1 survivors is to be held at the PRO on April 8th.

Fifteen survivors aged between 102 and 108 are due to attend including the last surviving officer. The report says that there are only 37 survivors remaining.

The plan includes the making of a film to be used in schools.

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There is no mention of whether the meeting will be in public.

The report says that the gathering is being organised by the World War One Veterans Association and mentions three names hoping to attend including the last officer, the last cavalryman to see horseback action and Britain's oldest man (108).

It also says that seven veterans have died so far this year.

Assuming the story is true, I suspect there will substantial media coverage.

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From the MK News, of March 12th:

'Great War Veterans Meet For Last Reunion'

At 108 years of age, war veteran Jack Davis is planning one last mission.

As one of only a handful of British survivors of the First World War, he will be making the journey from his Stoke Hammond home to London next month for a Great War reunion.

Jack, one of eight children was born during Queen Victoria's reign in 1895, is believed to be Britain's oldest man. But despite his years he remains an articulate and chirpy character and is particularly upbeat about the event.

"I'm really looking forward to the reunion. Apart from myself the only other war veteran I know from the time is Harry Patch. We are surviving members of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. I have been trying to get Harry transferred here because he lives in Somerset. I suspect I will see some of my old friends, although there are not that many left".

An understatement, there are only around 39 British veterans still alive today.

Jack fought at Ypres, in Belgium, and he said; "This war was the most disgusting and humiliating experiance a man could suffer. I remember there were days we did not have a change of clothes and we had rats running around us. There was no drainage at the Front. For most of the time you upto your thighs in water or mud".

On one remarkable occasion he was in No-Mans-Land when he suddenly heard his brother's voice, who he didn't even know had enlisted in the Army.

"I heard hi, but I had a task to do and could not stop and talk to him, I also saw my other brother across the other division in the front-line on occasions. It was a very emotional time. Each year I go back and lay a wreath and attend the war memorial. There are 16,000 names on the memorial, most of them were 19 years of age, and so many of them were never found.".

The reunion, organised by the World War One Veteran's Association, takes place on April 8th at the PRO in Kew.

I've cut some bits out of the article so as not to take up too much room!

I'll leave the last word to Mr Davis:

War has no winners, they're all losers.

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Yes, they are all going to Kew including "Smiler" Marshall the Yeomanry/Hussars man from Ashtead Surrey who will be 106 on 15th March a few weeks before the meeting (God willing). I will try to obtain his address. I am sure some of us might like to send him a card !

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Yes, they are all going to Kew including "Smiler" Marshall the Yeomanry/Hussars man from Ashtead Surrey who will be 106 on 15th March a few weeks before the meeting (God willing). I will try to obtain his address. I am sure some of us might like to send him a card !

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