Harry patch ww1 biography examples youtube

Henry John Patch 17 June — 25 July , dubbed in his later years " the Last Fighting Tommy ", was an English supercentenarian , briefly the oldest man in Europe, and the world's last surviving trench combat soldier of the First World War. Longevity ran in Patch's family; his father lived to 82, his mother to 94, his brother George to 95 and his brother William to Patch left school in and became an apprentice plumber in Bath.

During the winter of —17 he was promoted to lance corporal , but was demoted after a fistfight with a soldier who had taken Patch's boots from his billet, and he saw no further promotion. He had a two-inch piece of shrapnel removed from his groin; as there was no anaesthetic remaining in the camp he chose to have the operation done without anaesthesia.

He was removed from the front line and returned to England on 23 December Patch referred to 22 September as his personal Remembrance Day. He was still convalescing on the Isle of Wight when the Armistice with Germany was declared the following November.

What did harry patch do during ww2?

When the war ended, I don't know if I was more relieved that we'd won or that I didn't have to go back. Passchendaele was a disastrous battle—thousands and thousands of young lives were lost. It makes me angry.