# The Last Surviving... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 20, 2005, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-surviving/322513 "2005-09-20T09:35:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-surviving/322513/41 "2005-11-12T18:46:40Z")
[Britain’s oldest WWI veteran](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/southern_counties/4426096.stm) is still alive and well. Isaw him interviewed a few days ago and he’s still got all his marbles. He needs a stick to walk, but I think that’s normal if you’re 109. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-surviving/322513/42 "2005-11-14T01:22:47Z")
> [@bonzer](#): > > It’s written by Max Arthur, who has a book in the works on the subject I’ll take the opportunity of the topical bump to note that Arthur’s book was released in advance of Remembrance Day in the UK and is [now available](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1592285708/qid=1131930766/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-0238045-9559331?v=glance&s=books). I haven’t read it, but a flick through it in a bookshop does suggest that it’s the definitive account of how the last few British WWI veterans are dying off and is a record of their memories. A book that, sadly, someone had to write. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-surviving/322513/43 "2005-11-14T02:18:25Z")
[Corrected link to book](http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0297846442/qid=1131934577/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/202-3635298-0515004). ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-surviving/322513/44 "2005-11-14T02:55:59Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > I always thought it would be interesting if the person who lived to a ridiculously old age was a person of national prominence – if, for example, Winston Churchill was still alive today. > > Somewhere I have an MP3 of a recording made by (I think) a pope from the late 19th century; supposedly it is the only existing audio recording of a person who was alive in the 18th century. While not Churchill, the wife of one World War II leader survived the war by 58 years. Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, widow of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, was 106 when she died in 2003. She experienced 2 Chinese revolutions, and World War II. Then lived in the US for nearly 30 years after the Generalissimo’s death. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-surviving/322513/45 "2005-11-14T04:50:33Z")
> [@5 time champ](#): > > While not Churchill, the wife of one World War II leader survived the war by 58 years. > Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, widow of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, was 106 when she died in 2003. She experienced 2 Chinese revolutions, and World War II. Then lived in the US for nearly 30 years after the Generalissimo’s death. Yes, I remember thinking what an amazing life she’d led when she died! I suppose she acclimatized to things in her life as they happened over 106 years, but my God, what a leap from being born in China in 1893 to dying in New York City in 2003… I’ll have to dig out the recording of what I thought was the pope; it may have been a bishop, or something similar. I remember it was a member of the Catholic clergy (it was a recording of the person reciting some prayers in Latin). ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2005, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-surviving/322513/46 "2005-11-14T05:14:29Z")
> [@Rodgers01](#): > > I always thought it would be interesting if the person who lived to a ridiculously old age was a person of national prominence – if, for example, Winston Churchill was still alive today. Well the Queen Mother only died 2 years ago, and she was in every sense a contemporary of Churchill, being the Queen during WWII. So it’s not like it doesn’t happen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-last-surviving/322513.md?page=2)