Harry Patch

Infobox Military Person
name= Harry Patch
born= birth date|1898|6|17|df=yes


caption= Harry Patch at age 109
nickname=
placeofbirth= Combe Down, Somerset
placeofdeath=
allegiance= UK
branch=British Army
serviceyears=
rank= Private
unit= 7th Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry
commands=
battles= Battle of Passchendaele (World War I)
awards= Knight of the Order of Leopold
Knight of the Légion d'honneur
British War Medal
Victory Medal
1939-45 Defence Medal
National Service Medal
Hors de combat
Freedom of the City of Wells
Honorary Master of Arts, Bristol
relations=
laterwork=

Henry John "Harry" Patch (born 17 June 1898) is, at the age of age|1898|6|17, the second-oldest living man in the UK [cite book|last =Patch|first =Harry|coauthors =Richard van Emden|title =The Last Fighting Tommy|publisher =Bloomsbury|date =6 August 2007|pages =256|isbn =0747591156] and the ninth-oldest verified man in the world. He is the last British soldier to have fought in the trenches of the Western Front during the First World War, and one of two overall remaining. The other one is age|1899|12|31-year-old Fernand Goux of France, who did so for one week and came out unscathed, unlike Patch and the last Alpine Front veteran, age|1898|8|23-year-old Delfino Borroni of Italy.

cquotetxt|Any one of them could have been me. Millions of men came to fight in this war and I find it incredible that I am the only one left.|On graves at a Flanders war cemetery, July 2007| [cite web
url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/30/narmy130.xml&DCMP=OTC-Autonolnk
title="I've never got over it"
author=Nigel Blundell
date= 31 July 2007
publisher="The Daily Telegraph"]

Patch is also the last surviving Tommy to have faced combat, as Sydney Lucas and Netherwood Hughes were still in training. The penultimate fighting Tommy, Andrew Rigby, died on 9 June 2006, the week before Patch's 108th birthday. Additionally, Patch is one of the last four surviving British veterans of the First World War still living in the country, the others being age|1896|6|6-year-old Henry Allingham, age|1900|6|12-year-old Ned Hughes and age|1900|9|23-year-old Bill Stone.

Biography

Patch was born in Combe Down, a village in Somerset, England. Before the Great War, he worked as an apprentice plumber in Bath. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/6760973.stm "WWI veteran celebrates 109 years"] , BBC News, 17 June 2007.]

During the war, Patch was conscripted into the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, serving as an assistant gunner in a Lewis Gun section. He was a private at the Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres). After the war, Patch returned to work as a plumber, during which time he spent four years working on the Wills Memorial Building in Bristol and, during the Second World War, a fireman. [cite book|last =Patch|first =Harry|coauthors =Richard van Emden|title =The Last Fighting Tommy|publisher =Bloomsbury|date =6 August 2007|isbn =0747591156] As of September 2008 he is the United Kingdom's oldest retired firefighter.

Patch featured in the 2003 television series "World War 1 in Colour", and was quoted as saying "...if any man tells you he went over the top and he wasn't scared, he's a damn liar."

In the same series, he reflected upon his lost friends and the moment when he came face to face with a German soldier. He recalled Moses descending from Mount Sinai with God's commandment, 'thou shalt not kill', and couldn't kill the German. He shot him above the knee, and in the ankle. Patch said, "I had about five seconds to make the decision. I brought him down, but I didn't kill him".

In November 2004 (at the age of 106), he met Charles Kuentz, a 108-year-old veteran who had fought on the German side at the battlefield of Passchendaele (and on the French side in World War II). Patch was quoted as saying: "I was a bit doubtful before meeting a German soldier. Herr Kuentz is a very nice gentleman however. He is all for a united Europe and peace – and so am I". Kuentz had brought along a tin of Alsatian biscuits and Patch gave him a bottle of Somerset cider in return.

In December 2004, Patch was given a present of 106 bottles of Patch's Pride Cider which has been named after him. [cite web|title= Cider joy for World War I vet |date= 22 December 2004 |publisher= BBC News Online |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/4117003.stm]

In July 2005, Harry Patch voiced his outrage over plans to build a motorway in northern France on the territory of cemeteries of the First World War.

On 16 December 2005, he was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Bristol, whose buildings he helped construct in the 1920s. [cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/4534214.stm|title=Honour for 107-year-old veteran |work=BBC Bristol|publisher=BBC|accessdate=2008-09-25]

He currently lives in Wells, Somerset, at the Fletcher House nursing home.

In July 2007, marking the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Passchendaele, in which he fought, Patch revisited the site of the battle in Flanders to pay his respects to the fallen on both sides of the conflict; he was accompanied by historian Richard van Emden. On this occasion, Patch described war as the "calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings" and said that "war isn't worth one life." [cite web| title= Veteran, 109, revisits World War I trench |url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/6921217.stm |publisher= BBC News Online |date= 30 July 2007]

In August 2007, Patch's autobiography "The Last Fighting Tommy" was published, making him one of the oldest authors ever. [ Daily Telegraph Review Section, 19 August 2007, p. 28]

Harry Patch was also the guest of honour at a the Rose and Crown pub re-opening on 29 November 2007. [cite web |title=Last WW1 survivor is guest of honour |author=Charley Morgan |publisher="Wiltshire Times & Chippenham News" |url=http://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/latestheadlines/display.var.1873433.0.last_ww1_survivor_is_guest_of_honour.php |date=30 November 2007]

The recently restored Wills Memorial Building at Bristol University was reopened by Patch on 20 February 2008. He was chosen for this honour as he was a member of the workforce that originally helped build the tower which was opened on June 9, 1925 by King George V, an event which Patch also attended. [cite web|title=Harry Patch, 109, World War I veteran, lights up city's skyline|url=http://www.huliq.com/51254/harry-patch-109-wwi-veteran-lights-city039s-skyline|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5WAgYJiLM|accessdate=2008-02-21|archivedate=2008-03-07]

In February 2008 the poet laureate of the United Kingdom Andrew Motion was commissioned to write a poem in Harry Patch's honour. Entitled "The Five Acts of Harry Patch" it was first read at a special event at the Bishop's Palace in Wells where it was introduced by the Prince of Wales and received by Harry Patch. [cite web|title=Poem honours World War I veteran aged 109|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7279861.stm|publisher=BBC News Online|date=2008-03-07|accessdate=2008-03-07] [cite web|title=Harry Patch: A century's life shaped by four months at war|url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/03/08/bomotion108.xml|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5WAfNpa09|accessdate=2008-03-08|archivedate=2008-03-08]

In July 2008 "Wells City Council" confered the freedom of the city of Wells on Harry Patch. [Citation | title = Last fighting Tommy is made Freeman of the city | newspaper = Shepton Mallet Journal | year = 2008 | date = 2008-07-17 | url = http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=147490&command=displayContent&sourceNode=147478&contentPK=21092248&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch]

On the 27 September 2008 in a private ceremony attended by just a few people, Harry Patch opened a memorial on the bank of the Steenbeek at the point where he crossed the river in 1917. The memorial reads:- “Here, at dawn, on 16 August 1917, the 7th Battalion, Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, 20th (Light) division, crossed the Steenbeek prior to their successful assault on the village on Langemarck.This stone is erected to the memory of fallen comrades, and to honour the courage, sacrifice and passing of the Great War generation. It is the gift of former Private and Lewis Gunner Harry Patch, No. 29295, C Company, 7th DCLI, the last surviving veteran to have served in the trenches of the Western Front.September 2008”

Medals

Harry Patch has seven medals.

For his service in the First World War he has the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

In 1998, as a surviving veteran of the First World War who had fought for the Allies in France and Flanders, the President of the Republic of France appointed Harry a Knight of the Légion d'honneur. The award was presented to Harry on his 101st birthday.

On 7 January 2008, Albert II, King of the Belgians, conferred upon Harry the award of Knight of the Order of Leopold. He received the award from Jean-Michel Veranneman de Watervliet, Belgium's Ambassador to the United Kingdom at a ceremony in the Ambassador's residence in London on 22 September 2008, which coincidentally was the 91st anniversary of the day he was wounded in action, and three of his closest friends killed. [Citation | title = I am very humbled that King Albert II has honoured me | newspaper = Shepton Mallet Journal | date = 2008-06-18 | url = http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=147490&command=displayContent&sourceNode=147478&contentPK=20893180&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch and Citation | title = Happy Birthday Harry | newspaper = Shepton Mallet Journal | date = 2008-06-19 | url = http://www.thisissomerset.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=147490&command=displayContent&sourceNode=147478&contentPK=20899664&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch] [citation|url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/23/firstworldwar.military|title=Soldiering on at 110: Belgium honours veteran of western front|first=Stephen|last=Bates|newspaper=The Guardian|date=2008-09-23|accessdate=2008-09-23]

At the end of the Second World War, Harry was awarded the 1939-45 Defence Medal. This medal was subsequently lost and, on 20 September 2008, at a ceremony at Bath Fire Station, Harry was presented with a replacement medal.

Harry also has two commemorative medals: the National Service Medal and the Hors de combat medal, which is awarded for outstanding bravery of servicemen and women who have sustained wounds or injury in the line of duty.

ee also

* List of living supercentenarians
* List of British supercentenarians
* Surviving veterans of World War I

References

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/4534214.stm BBC News report of the award of an honorary degree to Patch]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/5090664.stm BBC News report of Patch's 108th birthday]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/6760973.stm BBC News report of Patch's 109th birthday]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7458315.stm BBC News report of Patch's 110th birthday]
* [http://www.lightinfantry.org.uk/regiments/dcli/harrypatch/harrypatch_cider.htm Harry Patch Cider British Light Infantry Website]
* [http://www.lightinfantry.org.uk/regiments/dcli/harrypatch/harrypatch_degree.htm Harry Patch Degree British Light Infantry Website]
* [http://www.lightinfantry.org.uk/regiments/dcli/harrypatch/harrypatch.htm Harry Patch WW1 British Light Infantry Website]