Hundreds line the streets to honour Britain's oldest Great War hero Henry Allingham

Daily Mail (UK) ^ | 30th July 2009

[naturalman1975]

A fly-past of replica planes was held to mark the passing of Britain's oldest World War I veteran this afternoon.

Hundreds of people lined the streets to pay their respects to the world's oldest man and British war hero Henry Allingham.

The 113-year-old died peacefully in his sleep on July 18 at his care home St Dunstan's, near Brighton.

Mr Allingham, who served in the Royal Navy and RAF, was laid to rest with full military honours at a service at St Nicholas's Church in Brighton.

As this afternoon's service began, crowds broke into spontaneous applause as his Union Flag-draped coffin arrived in the church grounds.

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Two military buglers from the Royal Marines then sounded the Last Post as his coffin was carried out of the church.

This was followed by a one-minute silence and the Reveille. The procession then slowly made its way away from the church as the bells began to toll 113 times to mark every year of Mr Allingham's life.

The awaiting crowd broke into spontaneous applause and looked skywards as five replica First World War aircraft flew overhead. These included three SE5A biplanes, a Sopwith Pup and a Sopwith triplane.

As Mr Allingham's coffin was driven away, hundreds of members of the public clapped and cheered. The planes are significant because Mr Allingham worked on each of the airframes during his service with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm and subsequently the RAF.

[SanFranDan]

Sadly, England is not what it used to be.

[Redleg Duke]

A class farewell to a distinguished warrior.

[Shooter 2.5]

I put this on the banglist so it will be more attention.

[Shooter 2.5]

The three aircraft you posted are the S.E.5A’s. It was easy to fly, stable and very effective at hight altitude. It was an excellent gun platform. It could outdive anything the Germans flew and climb better than most.

[6323cd]

BTTT

[naturalman1975]

Yes - I can identify WWI aircraft fairly reliably being a Biggles maniac. Not so good on World War II, for some reason, though.

I prefer the Camel to the SE5 (again, probably because that’s what Biggles flew).

[Shooter 2.5]

I heard there was this movie about Biggles and it was worse than horrible. How can you be a fan? Are there books or some other media that was better?

[montomike]

James Bigglesworth, better known in flying circles as “Biggles”, is a fictional pilot and adventurer created by W. E. Johns

[agere_contra]

There are all the ‘Biggles’ books, of course.

[naturalman1975]

The movie was an absolute travesty, introducing time travel into the equation among other things.

The Biggles books, on the other hand, were written by ‘Captain’ W.E. Johns, himself a World War I pilot, from 1932 until 1968. They covered the career of James Bigglesworth through as a pilot in both World Wars (and other smaller conflicts), an adventuring pilot/explorer between the wars and as a aerial police officer after the second world war with periods as a spy and other adventures along the way. There’s nearly 100 books in the series. They are ‘boys own adventure’ types and at one stage were among the most popular books for boys in Britain and the empire.

[naturalman1975]

Just a sample.

[Shooter 2.5]

I never heard of the books. I thought there was a series of movies so I order what I thought was the correct one and it was painful to watch. I take it to mean the books were illustrated for young adults?

[Shooter 2.5]

Thank you. Now I understand. I had hoped the movie was better but I was uncomfortable just trying to watch it.

It would be great if the James Bond movie producers would start a movie series.

[naturalman1975]

The original books were written for adults, but they rapidly became very popular with boys and so they became W.E. Johns main audience. They are war stories, or detective stories, or adventure stories for the most part, fairly pulpish at times, but are an entertaining read.

[6323cd]

This is appropriate for this thread...

"The Flowers of the Forest" (Running time: 6:31)

The traditional lament for the fallen in forces of the British Commonwealth, sung by Isla St.Clair, with the pipes over images of home, war, and the repatriation of British, Canadian and Australian soldiers.

[nina0113]

Sad to know that almost all the WWI vets are gone now - I remember when I was a kid, they were always out in uniform, “selling” poppies for Memorial Day. I have a scan of a photo of my grandmother and her cousin, wearing my great-uncles’ WWI uniforms.

[naturalman1975]

I do not blame you - the movie was awful. It was even worse for fans on the books who had to put up with so much that was just wrong (leaving aside the time travel aspect, there were characters appearing in the film, set in World War I/and the 1980s) who were from the World War II and subsequent books and who weren't even born during the First World War in one case. They paid for the name and then they, for some reason (allegedly they wanted to cash in on the success of Back to the Future) made something that had very little to do with a well known and popular series of books.

[naturalman1975]

A great Australian song - And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda ends with the following lament:

But the band plays "Waltzing Matilda,"
And the old men still answer the call,
But as year follows year, more old men disappear
Someday, no one will march there at all.

[EDINVA]

What a lovely farewell.

It would be nice to think that the UK and US could revert to some of their ‘old ways’ of respect, honor and dignity. We tend to see those qualities only in coverage of this sort in smaller towns and cities.

[Shooter 2.5]

It’s always a joy to read a book from someone who has the experience and the knowledge and passes it one to their readers.

I wish I would have been able to get one of the books before I even thought of watching that movie. I think the movie is in the box that I sent to Half-Price books yesterday.

I always loved WWI planes and started into Ultralights for that reason. My instructor sold the dual passenger so no more flying for me unless a miracle happens and I buy my own plane.

[naturalman1975]

Quite a number of the books are still in print and at least some are available from Amazon. Just make sure that it's written by W.E. Johns. They are worth looking at, in my view.

---

I wish that kid'd come in," said Biggles, with a worried frown. "I wonder what he can be up to."

The telephone in the office rang shrilly, and Biggles hurried to the door as he heard "Wat" Tyler, the Recording Officer, speak. Wat was writing down a message, repeating it as he wrote.

"Yes," he was saying. "Observation Post 19-117 Brigade, Royal Field Artillery." He glanced up at Biggles and looked quickly down again. "Yes," he went on, "three enemy balloons - seen to fall - just behind - enemy Front Line trenches. Yes. I've got that. One Sopwith Camel - also seen - to fall - in - flames - message ends. Goodbye."

Dead silence fell upon the group. Biggles leaned for a moment against the doorpost, staring at the ground. The knuckles of the hand that gripped his flying-cap had turned very white.

His nostrils quivered once, quickly. He looked up mistily, and his face twisted into a semblance of a smile.

"Come on, chaps!" he said huskily. "Let's aviate."

---

That passage has stuck with me from the day I discovered Biggles when I was ten years old in 1966. My father had fallen less than a year earlier - I had no time for stories that pretended that in war people didn't die. But you had to get on with life. And make their death matter by getting the bloody job done.

[nina0113]

I read somewhere that at the end of Blackadder Goes Forth, when the troops went up out of the trench into the gunfire, then faded away, that a lot of the WWI vets broke down seeing it. I had a hard time with it myself, and I was born 40 years later, and I knew it was just a TV show, and a comedy at that! I just checked IMDB and that series was from 1983, so there were still quite a lot of vets left at the time.

[Shooter 2.5]

Thank you for this. It reminds me there are still men in this world.

Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone
Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone

When they come I will stand my ground
Stand my ground I’ll not be afraid

Thoughts of home take away my fear
Sweat and blood hide my veil of tears

Once a year say a prayer for me
Close your eyes and remember me

Never more shall I see the sun
For I fell to a Germans gun

Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone
Lay me down in the cold cold ground
Where before many more have gone

Where before many more have gone

In memory of Sgt. Charles Stuart MacKenzie
Seaforth Highlanders
Who along with many others gave up his life
So that we can live free

We will remember them

[LTCJ]

Here’s to the memory of great “Uncle Dave” - gassed by the Germans but survived to inspire a young boy many years later.

[nina0113]

Here’s a much, much better poem than the POS the current Poet Laureate wrote to ‘honor’ him (don’t bother following the links in the original article - it’s about the futility of war). I was only familiar with the fourth stanza.

by Laurence Binyon (I had to look his name up)

For The Fallen
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England’s foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

http://www.firstworldwar.com/poetsandprose/binyon.htm

[6323cd]

bttt

[naturalman1975]

I just thought some people might appreciate this little detail that was not in the article posted last night.

His medals, including the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, were carried by his great-grandsons, Michael Gray and Brent Gray, both petty officers in the United States Navy.

Great-grandsons: Michael Gray, U.S. Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class, left, and Brent Gray, U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class in the United States Navy

[6323cd]

Very cool.

[EDINVA]

makes a beautiful story even moreso that Henry Allingham’s great grandsons carry on the family tradition of service, and as Americans no less. Thanks for the update, naturalman.

[Redleg Duke]

What a fine legacy and two “additional medals” added to Henry Allingham’s collection of well-earned honors.