Claude Choules

Claude Stanley Choules was an English Australian who was the last combat veteran of the First World War, and the last military witness to the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow. He was also the last veteran to have served in both world wars, and the last seaman from the First World War. At the time of his death, he was also the third oldest verified military veteran in the world and the oldest known living man in Australia. He was the seventholdest living man in the world. Choules became the oldest man born in the United Kingdom following the death of Stanley Lucas onJune 2010. Choules died in Perth, Western Australia, at the age of 110. He had been the oldest Britishborn man following his death, that honour went to the Reverend Reginald Dean . In December 2011, the landing ship HMAS160Choules was named after him, only the second Royal Australian Navy vessel named after a sailor.

Claude Choules was born in Pershore, Worcestershire, onMarch 1901 and raised in nearby Wyre Piddle. The son of Harry and Madeline , Claude was one of seven children, although two died in early childhood. The surviving siblings were Douglas, Leslie, Phyllis and Gwendoline. His mother left home when Claude was five, returning to the stage as an actress, and he and his older brothers were raised by his father. His older sister Phyllis lived with the family of a paternal uncle, while his younger sister Gwendoline was adopted by the family of a paternal aunt. Claude and his older brothers went to Pershore National Boys School, though Douglas and Leslie emigrated to Western Australia in 1911.

Source: Wikipedia