The Last Survivor of Passchendaele

[Piper]

A very interesting article, and it reminded me of Justice Hall:
Harry Patch, 109, the last survivor of the the battle of Passchendaele (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml?xml=/portal/2007/07/12/nosplit/ftharry112.xml).

"Henry John Patch would be notable simply by virtue of his 109 years on earth. When he was born, on June 17, 1898, the Marquess of Salisbury was Prime Minister and Queen Victoria had two and a half years still to reign. Kitchener was 11 weeks away from fighting the Battle of Omdurman and the outbreak of the Boer War lay 16 months into the future. H G Wells's latest work, The War of the Worlds, had just been published in book form following its successful serialisation in Pearson's Magazine.

But Harry Patch is more than a gerontological phenomenon. The man arranging his medals and sitting up straight for a photograph in the conservatory of a nursing home in Wells is the last British man alive to have served in the trenches during the First World War. The last survivor of Passchendaele, that three-month orgy of blood-letting in the mud of Flanders which began 90 years ago this month and commemorated by the Queen at Tyne Cot cemetery in Belgium today. The last Tommy of the Great War. "

[vicki]

Wow. That's an amazing story Piper. Thanks for posting it. A great subject, effectively presented.

It's so frustrating to hear how thousands of young people went through the meat grinders day after day over a few miles of ruined land. Gad, what a horrible, rotten, senseless war. So much pain, suffering and death came out of it. Even now, after so many decades--twice a widower, two sons born, grown and buried, new ages and inventions come and gone, he still dreams about that dreadful time.

This reminds me that I need to move The Guns of August (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guns_of_August) up in the TBR stack. I also have The Proud Tower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Proud_Tower), by the same author, which would probably be a good companion read. Anyone read those?

[jtb1951]

This reminds me that I need to move The Guns of August up in the TBR stack. I also have The Proud Tower, by the same author, which would probably be a good companion read. Anyone read those?

Hi, vicki! The only book of Barbara Tuchman's that I have read was A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century, a comparison of modern Europe w/ it's 14th century analogue. I was very impressed by both the scholarship and humanity with which she imbued her telling! The Guns of August will have to go onto my TBR pile also (where is that darn ladder!!!)

John.

[vicki]

Oooh. ADM sounds good. Pop histories rock! I especially love William Manchester's stuff (and I still grieve that he died before finishing the last volume of his Churchill biography <sob!>). But I've had so many smart people point me to Tuchman's stuff, it must be great.

My poor stack morphed into a skyscraper and then into a mountain several years ago. I did finally break down and donate some volumes to the library, but I still need rappelling equipment to deal with what's left. :)

[jtb1951]

My poor stack morphed into a skyscraper and then into a mountain several years ago. I did finally break down and donate some volumes to the library, but I still need rappelling equipment to deal with what's left.:)

Well, you have me beat!:) One of these days, though I'll be discarding the extension ladder for a skyhook!!:p

John.

[laurierking]

Thanks, Piper, for bringing this to my attention--I did a blog about it, what a story.