Harry Patch at 109

Harry Patch is the last British Tommy to see action in the treches of the Western Front. He was wounded at Passchendaele on September 22nd 1917. He celebrated his birthday on June 17th 2007.

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• patch
• passchendaele
• ww1
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• tommy
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[crowhawk]

Fair play to Harry for speaking out against the glorification of war. He wasn't a volunteer soldier. He was conscripted into a war that had nothing to do with the ordinary man on either German or British side. He never owned so much as a handfull of the soil he fought & millions died for! Our governments are far too fond of wrapping themselves in the flag & glorifiying militarism. Millions died in a folly monumental incompetance & lunacy! For what? So the rich could remain rich. RIP Harry!

[dougalmac54]

The thing that stands out most to me is the humanity of this man. He is unequivocal in his belief that the war was a complete waste of time, and that it accomplished nothing but pain, suffering, brutality, and waste. You cannot argue with a man who was wounded in battle, suffered tremendous loss, and lived a life beyond imagination. God Bless You, Harry Patch-you were truly an amazing human being, and a credit to our world. Too bad self-serving politicians can't think and act like this man.

[MatthewAlfrey]

@yenbadcito "If any man said he was in the trenches and went over the top and wasn't scared, he was a liar"

[yenbadcito]

i am sorry, but can i anyone transcribe what mr. Patch said, i have a harde figuring it out. thanks

[machinegun0478714950]

its brings tears to my eyes and shakes my body why have they died for what???

[chigaloo2]

The other reason for his popularity was he was an everyman. God bless him and his generation.

Lest we forget.

[moominpic]

Yes, the reason he was famous was because he lived longest. He once commented about how strange it felt to know that of the 4 million or so men who fought in the trenches, he was the last one.

[soylentgreenb]

Well, it's a little better today.

We have nukes now, and they have a beautiful property no other weapon shares; the old farts who would send young men to fight and die for them are even more at risk in a nuclear strike than those they send away. Not even a genocidal psychopath like Stalin dared start a nuclear war.

We still need to keep industrialized nations from picking a fight with developing nations and picking a fight against their own citizens, but there is at least a little progress.

[AndyHicks2003]

Harry Patch was a simple, honest man from Combe Down, a small, honest village that in his time stood apart from the concerns of England, it's politics, it's policies as a whole. When he was forced to fight, he had to; he fought for a country, but he died a man, and only a man.

Harry Patch spoke for any civilian, on any side, in any war -

'war is the calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings.'

May we stop this cycle, before it is our last.

[theblackmafia71]

The shot at dawn memorial is located at the National Arboretam in Staffordshire

[moominpic]

To true, eyeamsparticus. Just reading the book "Forgotten Voices", a selection of memories from IWM recordings archive. Conscientious Objectors were often abused and court martialled and sentenced to years in prison.

[moominpic]

Interesting. Where is the memorial for the 'shot at dawn'?