It is dangerous to call someone “the last living” whatever, as you will invariably be proved wrong. So I will only say that Florence Green, who died on Feb. 4, aged 110, is reported to have been the last living World War I veteran.
Green joined the Women’s Royal Air Force in September 1918, at the age of 17, and, according to her local Norfolk paper, she had as good a time as my own mother did in Miami during the Second World War: “I met dozens of pilots and would go on dates,” she said. “I had the opportunity to go up in one of the planes but I was scared of flying. It was a lovely experience and I’m very proud.”
When asked how it felt being 110, she deadpanned, “Not much different to being 109.”
Florence Green was the last known veteran of World War I, having served in the Women’s Royal Air Force as a waitress. She was two weeks shy of her 111th birthday.
I often hear of the Korean War referred to as the Forgotten War. Even though it was sandwiched in between World War II and the Vietnam War, both cataclysmic events in American history, I believe that the War to End All Wars is indeed the conflict that is least understood, yet bears a considerable mark on the development of our country to what it is today – for the better, in my opinion, but perhaps also for the worse. But the ascent of the United States to the world stage is perhaps an academic event at this point in time. I can’t think of a World War I film that anyone but a movie buff would have seen (with the notable exception of the recent War Horse), and literature about the war is probably mostly read in high school lit classes.
I was fortunate enough to have met Frank Buckles, the last surviving American World War I veteran, on a handful of occasions. He died 11 months ago. The times that I met him, I always reflected on how strange it was that I was talking with someone who fought a war while my late grandparents were in diapers.
On my frequent trips to Europe, and particularly the UK, it is fascinating that World War I still leaves an imprint on society. Visit London in November and you can see so many people who have paid a quid to wear a paper poppy on their lapel. It is a remarkable statement on the power of history.
Thank you, Mrs. Green, for your service to your country.
My grandfather was in the army in WW1. He spent the entire on a base in the south as a supply clerk. He told my mom that he was very grateful that he was never sent overseas to fight.
RIP Ms.Green, you earned it.
In 1975 I met my husband’s grandfather, a WWI vet, end it amazed me. He did speak some about the war, about being in France. But the stories were all between the battles stuff, mostly humorous incidents. He wouldn’t talk about fighting, except just one statement to say he’d seen his best friend from home shot.
I remember seeing an interview with a British (I think) WWI veteran a maybe 10 years ago. He was over a hundred years old, anyway. It went something like this:
Interviewer:
“Did you have nightmares after the war?”
Veteran:
“Yes, yes, of course.”
Interviewer:
“When did you last have a nightmare?”
Veteran:
“Last night.”
War is indeed hell, and the Great War was perhaps the most hellish.
Realistic? Well, the gas attack sequence in Fraulein Doktor was pretty good. *A Very LongEngagement * was more surrealistic, but then war defies realistic understanding, so that worked out just fine. British “poor bloody infantry” melodramas are standard fare, but among them King And Country, and The Trench with Daniel Craig, stand out.
There’s a half-hour short of Hemmingway’s Soldier’s Home, with, IIRC, Nancy Marchand, that has more realism than Sergeant York or What Price Glory.