Harry Patch
Henry John Harry Patch , dubbed in his later years the Last Fighting Tommy, was a British supercentenarian, briefly the oldest man in Europe and the last surviving combat soldier of the First World War from any country. He is known to have fought in the trenches of the Western Front. Patch was the longest surviving combat soldier of World War I but he was the fifth longest surviving veteran of any sort of World War I, behind British veterans Claude Choules and Florence Green, Frank Buckles of the United States of America and John Babcock of Canada. At the time of his death, aged 111 years,month,week andday, Patch was the thirdoldest man in the world and the oldest man in Europe.
Patch was born in the village of Combe Down, near Bath, Somerset, England. He appears in the 1901 Census as a twoyearold boy along with his stonemason father William John Patch, mother Elizabeth Ann and older brothers George Frederick and William Thomas at a house called Fonthill. The family are recorded at the same address Fonthill Cottage in the 1911 census. His elder brothers are recorded as a carpenter and banker mason. Longevity ran in Patchs family his father lived to 82, his mother to 94, his brother George to 95 and his brother William to 87. Patch left school in 1913 and became an apprentice plumber in Bath.
Source: Wikipedia