World's Oldest Man Dies at 113

British WWI vet, 113, becomes oldest man with death of Japanese elder

(NEWSER) - British WWI veteran Henry Allingham learned yesterday that he is now the world's oldest man following the death of 113-year-old Tomoji Tanabe, the Independent reports. Tanabe eschewed alcohol and tobacco but Allingham, also 113, once quipped that his longevity was due to "cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women." The retired engineer lives in a home for ex-servicemen and has remained highly active in war commemorations. More»

(NEWSER) - Harry Patch, the last British man to survive World War I’s trenches, has died at age 111, the BBC reports. He was the oldest man in Europe, and the third oldest in the world. “I had the honor of meeting Harry, and I share his family's grief at the passing of a great man,” Gordon Brown said. “The noblest of generations has left us, but they will never be forgotten.” More»

Across Europe, World War I remains the defining conflict of modern times

(NEWSER) - Ninety years ago today the Allies and Germany signed the armistice that ended World War I, a conflict of unprecedented brutality and expense. But where today Americans celebrate Veterans Day, a commemoration of wars' survivors, in Europe the mood is "altogether more somber," historian Alexander Watson writes in the New York Times. In Britain and France especially, today—Armistice Day—is a day for the dead. More»

Florence Green served as a mess steward in the Women's Royal Air Force

(NEWSER) - On Saturday night, the world lost its last known World War I service member. Though she never saw the front line, Florence Green, age 110, is thought to have been the last surviving veteran of the war. She was just two weeks shy of her 111th birthday, on Feb. 19, the BBC notes. Green joined the Women's Royal Air Force in 1918 at just 17 years old, two months before the armistice. She served food in the mess halls at RAF bases in England before leaving the service in 1919, after which she married and spent much of the rest of her life working at a hotel and volunteering with the Royal British Legion. More»

Navy vet Claude Choules dies in Australia

(NEWSER) - The last known survivor of the tens of millions of people who fought in World War I has died in Australia at the age of 110, reports AP . Claude Choules began training with Britain's Royal Navy when he was just 14 and served on the battleship HMS Revenge, where he witnessed the surrender of Germany's main fleet in 1918. He moved to Australia after the war and served in the navy there during World War II, acting as chief demolition officer for the western side of the continent, which was considered vulnerable to Japanese attack. More»