With a long-standing reputation as a pedant, TheEye has been particularly twitchy when watching recent reports on the picture-box and in the dead-tree press which have called Harry Patch “the last veteran of WWI”.

As any fule kno, he was the last English soldier and veteran of the trenches to survive.

Claude Choules at 108 and living in a retirement home in Perth, Western Australia, holds the “last” distinction but he isn’t particulary bothered by the idea. “Everything comes to those who wait” he said, proving that he had never experienced travelling with RyanAir.

And he says it was “mostly very tedious punctuated by moments of extreme danger”, which might indicate some travel with Aeroflot in its more entertaining days.

Born in Pershore, in March, 1901, Mr Choules served with the Royal Navy after joining the HMS Impregnable at 15, in 1916.

During a 41-year career that spanned both wars, he served on HMS Revenge, witnessing the surrender of the German Imperial Navy in 1918 and the scuttling of the fleet in Scapa Flow.
He was seconded to the Australian navy in 1926 and remained in the force for 30 years before retiring.

Mr Choules is one of three First World War veterans still alive. The other two are Frank Buckles, a 108-year-old American, and Canadian John Babcock, 109, who both live in the United States. Neither Mr Buckles nor Mr Babcock saw active combat.

Source: The Australian