Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man and WWI survivor dies. Hear him on StoryVault.
Posted at 18-07-2009 by: The StoryVault Team
Henry William Allingham - First World War veteran and World's Oldest Man 1896 - 2009
Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man and one of only two surviving World War I veterans, has died at the age of 113 years and 42 days.
Born in Clapton in London in the UK, Henry remembered seeing WG Grace playing cricket in 1903. Mechanically inclined, Henry left a job at Barts Hospital in London where he was a trainee surgical instrument maker and after spending some time as a coachbuilder joined the Royal Naval Air Service as an Air Mechanic in 1915. Allingham served throughout the rest of the war, transferring to the Royal Air Force at the time of its creation in 1918.
At the time of his death Allingham is believed to have been the last surviving founder member of the R.A.F. formed at the end of World War I from the merged RNAS and RFC (Royal Flying Corps)
He was also the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland and recalls seeing shells "ricocheting across the sea" in the heat of the battle.
For the last decade Henry had become the face of the First World War veterans and often appeared at public events to ensure that the memory of the death and destruction during that war was never lost to modern generations.
Henry spoke to StoryVault only a few weeks ago, just before he became the world's oldest man - See some of the last ever interviews with Henry here on StoryVault
Henry Allingham was born on the 6th June 1896 and became the World's oldest man earlier this year on the 19th June following the death of Japanese supercentenarian Tomoji Tanabe.
Henry Allingham was much decorated. As well as two British campaign medals from World War I, he received France's highest military award, Légion d'honneur in 2003, the Gold Medal of Saint-Omer in 2004 when he was also given the Freedom of the Town. The British War Medal and the Victory Medal he wore in public were replacements for Allingham's original campaign medals which had been destroyed during the Blitz in World War II.
Links
Wikipedia - Henry Allingham
BBC News - Oldest WWI veteran dies aged 113