France's last WWI veteran dies at 110 - AP

[Yrys]

France's last WWI veteran dies at 110

PARIS, France (AP) -- Lazare Ponticelli, France's last veteran of World War I, has died. He was 110. Lazare Ponticelli was born in Italy but
fought for France in World War I.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed "deep emotion and sadness" at Ponticelli's death, which Sarkozy's office announced in a statement
Wednesday. No cause or details of his death were given. France planned a national funeral ceremony honoring its last "poilu" -- the term meaning
hairy or tough and given to those who fought in the Great War, as World War I is called here. The 1914-1918 conflict tore Europe apart.

Only a handful of World War I veterans are still living, scattered from Australia to the United States and Europe. Germany's last veteran from the
conflict died on New Year's Day. Ponticelli was born December 7, 1897, in Bettola, a town in the foothills of the Apennines in the Emilia Romagna
region of northern Italy. To escape a tough childhood, Ponticelli trooped off alone at age 9 to the nearest railway station, 34 kilometers (21 miles)
away in Piacenza, where he took a train to rejoin his brothers in France, eventually becoming a French citizen, according to the veterans' office
in the Yvelines region west of Paris. In the French capital, where he was when the war broke out, he worked as a chimney sweep and then as
a newspaper boy.

Ponticelli decided to fight for France, because it had taken him in. "It was my way of saying 'Thank you," he said in a 2005 interview with the daily
Le Monde and officials from France's veterans' office.

Article on link

 

[tomahawk6]

Legion honor guard.

 

[Brett2692]

Its a Damn shame 
Does anybody know how many Canadian ww1 veterans are still alive?

 

[Yrys]

Its a Damn shame 

Why is it a shame ? Because he died at 110 ?

 

[davidk]

A shame? No, a fact of life that everyone dies sooner or later. Sad to see him go, but no shame there...

A simple google search for 'surviving veterans of world war I provides the answer to your question, Brett.

 

[Brett2692]

Its a damn shame to loose another ww1 vet, I checked out wikipedia and there is only 13 verified veterans of ww1 still alive today...

 

[Yrys]

Its a damn shame to loose another ww1 vet, I checked out wikipedia and there is only 13 verified veterans of ww1 still alive today...

I'm not sure how much Surviving veterans of World War I's wikipedia can be trust, even with the latest update being recent,
but I find it surprising that there are 2 "unverified" veteran. I would have thought a "government-sanctioned body" had enough time to check it.

I agree with HighlandIslander about the fact that death is a human life phenomenon. Considering their age, and that we don't know anything about their health and quality of life,
I'm more prone to say : "kudos's to you, gentleman" ...

 

[Spencer100]

I think the shame is that we have lost one of the last remaining living links to the past.  We can one longer ask questions to people who lived it. No more more living history.

 

[ghyslyn]

it's a frightening fact of life to think about, when I was a kid there was a good amount of WW1 veterans still alive, but now I realise that someday we'll come to the point of having none left

 

[tomahawk6]

The WW2 generation is fast departing this world and a living WW2 vet in 10 years will be rare.

 

[marshall sl]

Last man standing
Vanishing generation; Originally there were 619,636 -- now, there is just one: 107-year-old Jack Babcock, the lone surviving veteran of Canada's First World War army
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=d5033f61-94b6-4a80-958f-41c19c7cde66

 

[Yrys]

Last man standing
Vanishing generation; Originally there were 619,636 -- now, there is just one: 107-year-old Jack Babcock, the lone surviving veteran of Canada's First World War army
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=d5033f61-94b6-4a80-958f-41c19c7cde66

Speaking of which :

Canada's oldest WWI vet a Canadian again

Canada's last link to the First World War is a citizen again. Jack Babcock is now 107-years-old and living in Spokane, Washington. But he wasn't always an American.
He grew up in a rural community, on a farm near Kingston, Ont. He's now Canada's only surviving veteran from the Great War.

Babcock tried to join the Canadian army in 1915 at the tender age of 15. He was young, but tenacious, and he didn't mind lying to fight for his cause. He finally made it
to Britain and served, but didn't see combat. "There were a lot of good guys that got to the front and a lot of them got killed," he told CTV News recently for an exclusive
report.

After the war, he moved to the U.S. and became a citizen there, and that forced him to renounce his Canadian citizenship. Babcock got back his citizenship officially on
Thursday after writing a simple two line letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "Could I have my citizenship restored," it asked, noting, "I would appreciate it."

The idea to get his Canadian citizenship returned came from Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson, who visited Babcock a few weeks ago. "I said Jack, would you be
interested in getting your Canadian citizenship back ... He said right away, 'It would be wonderful, if you could,'" Thompson recalled, in an interview with CTV News.

Babcock's always been modest about his service during the war. He didn't make it to Europe's front lines. "I ate up a lot of good government rations,'' a humble Babcock
has joked in past interviews. "I think if I had a chance, I would have gone to France, taken my chances like the rest of them did.''

Veterans groups say they're thrilled the old soldier is officially a Canadian again. "He has his Canadian citizenship back. I say, good on you, Jack. Way to go," says Cliff
Chadderton of War Amps.