Author(s): Harry Patch

First World War

Harry Patch, the last surviving British soldier to have fought in the trenches of the First World War, recalls the horror of that conflict. He vividly remembers his childhood in the Somerset countryside. He left school at fourteen to become an apprentice plumber but three years later was conscripted, serving as a machine gunner in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. The Second World War again saw Harry in action on the home front. Late in life Harry achieved fame, meeting the Queen and taking part in the BBC documentary 'The last Tommy', finally shaking hands with a German veteran of the artillery, and speaking out frankly to Prime Minister Tony Blair about the soldiers shot for cowardice in the First World War.