Surviving veterans of World War I
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Surviving_veterans_of_World_War_I".

The following is a list of known surviving veterans of the First World War (July 28, 1914–November 11, 1918). The total number of participating personnel is unknown, but there were an estimated nine million military casualties during the conflict.

Veterans, for this purpose, are defined as people who were members of the armed forces of one of the combatant nations up to and including the date of the Armistice. Other WWI-era veterans are listed separately. This policy may vary from the policy in actual use in some countries.

112-year-old Briton Henry Allingham, born June 6, 1896, is currently the oldest living verified WWI veteran. Emiliano Mercado del Toro of Puerto Rico (August 21, 1891–January 24, 2007), who died aged 115, is the oldest authenticated veteran, from any conflict, to have ever lived. On May 27, 2008, the last Central Powers' veteran, Franz Künstler of Austria-Hungary, died at age 107.

Verified veterans of the First World War—12 veterans

On June 27, 2006, the British Government approved a National Memorial Service at Westminster Abbey to take place after the death of the last known WWI veteran.^[1] Similarly, on November 21, 2006, the Canadian House of Commons approved a state funeral for the last World War I veteran to have served in the Canadian forces to die.^[2] This will now go to John Babcock. On March 19, 2008, Frank Buckles was approved for burial at Arlington National Cemetery upon his death.^[3]

On October 25, 2005, William Evan Allan received the Australian state funeral,^[4]as John Campbell Ross did not see active service. On March 17, 2008, despite the existence of Pierre Picault and Fernand Goux, Lazare Ponticelli received the French state funeral as the last poilu officially recognized by the French government.^[5] On April 3, 2008, Yakup Satar was similarly honoured in Turkey.^[6]

Residence	Name	Date of Birth	Age	Nationality	Force served	Notes
Australia	Choules, Claude Stanley	01901-03-03 3 March 1901	107	English	Royal Navy	Joined the Royal Navy in 1916. Emigrated to Australia in 1920 and served with Royal Australian Navy in the Second World War. Lives in Perth, Western Australia.[7][8]
Australia	Lucas, Sydney Maurice (Syd)	01900-09-21 21 September 1900	107	English	British Army 45th Sherwood Foresters	Did not see action (was still in training). Moved to Australia in 1928 and served in the Australian Army in WWII.[9]
Australia	Ross, John Campbell (Jack)	01899-03-11 11 March 1899	109	Australian	Australian Army 1st AIF	Wireless operator and last Australian digger.[10]
France	Goux, Fernand	01899-12-31 31 December 1899	108	French	French Army First 85th, then 82nd Infantry Regiment	Called to service on April 19, 1918. Excluded from French government lists as it only counts those with more than three months of combat service.[11]
France	Picault, Pierre	01899-02-27 27 February 1899	109	French	French Army	France's oldest man. Lives in Bou, Loiret. Confirmed by correspondent Laurent Toussaint to be the previously anonymous French veteran.citation needed
Italy	Borroni, Delfino	01898-08-23 23 August 1898	110	Italian	Italian Army 6th Bersaglieri Bologna	Last Italian veteran. Signed up in January 1917. Lives in Castano Primo, near Milan.[12]
United Kingdom	Allingham, Henry William	01896-06-06 6 June 1896	112	English	RNAS (later RAF)	The last known survivor of the Battle of Jutland. Was granted the Freedom of Eastbourne in April 2006, and is the oldest European man.[13][14]
United Kingdom	Hughes, Netherwood (Ned)	01900-06-12 12 June 1900	108	English	British Army	Did not see action (was still in training). Lives in Accrington, Lancashire.[15]
United Kingdom	Patch, Henry John (Harry)	01898-06-17 17 June 1898	110	English	British Army Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry	Last British soldier who fought in the trenches.[16][17][18]
United Kingdom	Stone, William (Bill)	01900-09-23 23 September 1900	107	English	Royal Navy	Did not see action (was still in training), but is also a WWII veteran.[19]
United States	Babcock, John Henry Foster (Jack)	01900-07-23 23 July 1900	108	Canadian	First 146th Battalion, CEF then Boys Battalion	Completed basic training, but did not see action (held back in reserves in England due to age). Moved to US in 1924 and resides in Spokane, Washington.[20][21]
United States	Buckles, Frank Woodruff	01901-02-01 1 February 1901	107	American	United States Army	Last US veteran. Served overseas and now resides in Charles Town, West Virginia.[22][23][24]

Unverified WWI veteran claims—2 veterans

These are claims that were included in the press, but have not been verified by a government-sanctioned body or actual records located. To be a 'claim', there must be at least a citation. William Olin claims his veteran status himself, but this is currently unsupported by physical evidence or independent research.

Residence	Name	Date of Birth	Age	Nationality	Force served	Notes
Ukraine	Krichevsky, Mikhail Efimovich	01897-02-25 25 February 1897	111	Ukrainian	Russian Army	Claimed to have joined the Russian Army in June 1917. Was trained in a military-engineering school. In October 1917 he was sent to the Austro-Hungarian front. After the October Revolution he returned to his home in Yekaterinoslav. Now lives in Donetsk.[25]
United States	Olin, William	01904-08-28 28 August 1904	104	American	United States Army	Claims to have enlisted at age thirteen. Resides in Chicago, Illinois.[26]

World War I-era veterans—4 veterans

Listed here are those who joined the armed services after the Armistice date, but before the Treaty of Versailles, or where there is debate on their join-date, or whose military service is sometimes viewed as outside the scope of "WWI", but are considered WWI-era vets by the press or by their respective governments, or who served in a related conflict.

Residence	Name	Date of Birth	Age	Nationality	Force served	Notes
Finland	Arvonen, Aarne Armas (Arska)	01897-08-04 4 August 1897	111	Finnish	Red Guards	Served in Finnish Civil War (1918). Currently oldest person in Finland and their last citizen born in the 1890s. Recruited in 1914 to help build fortifications in Saint Petersburg.[27][28]
Poland	Kowalski, Józef	01900-02-02 2 February 1900	108	Polish	Polish Army	Lives in Tursk, near Sulęcin, and fought against the Bolsheviks at the end of WWI.[29][30][31]
United Kingdom	Taggart, Robert (Bob)	01900-06-28 28 June 1900	108	Scottish	Royal Navy	Enlisted just after the end of the war. Scotland's oldest man.[32]
United States	Rex, Robley H.	01901-05-04 4 May 1901	107	American	United States Army	Resides in Louisville, Kentucky. Claims to have enlisted in 1918, but other sources cite 1919.[33][34][35]

World totals—18 veterans

• Verified claims of World War I and World War I Era: 16
  • World War I (Veterans who joined by Armistice Day): 12
    • Allies: 12
    • Central Powers: 0
  • World War I Era: 4
• Unverified claims: 2

See also

• Last surviving United States war veterans
• Last surviving World War I veteran by country
• Surviving veterans of the Spanish Civil War
• List of notable last events

References

External links

• Translated article & interview with Delfino Borroni, Italian veteran
• The Great War Society
• The Western Front Association – UK branch
• The Western Front Association – US branch
• The Great War Primary Documents Archive
• Public Radio Exchange (PRX) Walter Cronkite interviews some last surviving veterans of WWI
• Article about the remaining US veterans
• Table of the remaining veterans from this article
• World War One "The Great War"
• Article about Frank Buckles, the last US WWI vet to see action
• Last German World War I Veteran Believed to Have Died Article by David Crossland in Der Spiegel Online, 22 January 2008.
• Harry Patch at Ypres