[SittinYonder]

Am leaving work to go be with my family for Thanksgiving, but I read this in yesterday's The Scotsman and thought it might hold some interest for some.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[eyespysomething]

Wow.

Just wow.

[Doogle]

...whenever I read about someone over 100 years old I think of just how much history he has seen....


Doogle

[SittinYonder]

Pinging because I thought you might have an interest that the last Scot vet of WWI died. Also last guy alive to have been at the Christmas cease fire of 1914 ...


Happy Thanksgiving

[Vaquero]

anyone have any idea how many vets other than scottish vets are left?

[DTwistedSisterS]

seeing that thing about the truce gives me shivers. so much respect between the two armies, and it shows even through hell some things can overcome differences (go football, i assume they mean soccer, for the US, even better:-P)

[StarCMC]

the last surviving witness of the historic Christmas truce when opposing troops declared a brief and unofficial ceasefire to play football and share drinks and cigarettes in the hell of no man's land.

I had read about this!! Thanks for posting - may he rest in peace.

[lilylangtree]

Thanks! Happy Thanksgiving to you too.

[SoDak]

Same age as my Grandfather, except my Grandfather came down with Pall Mall flu clear back in '61. It's just amazing to think of all one could see in 109 years.

[newsworthy]

He said: "I'm the last man standing - the last surviving Scottish soldier from the Great War. It's up to me to remember all those who have gone before."

My great uncle died in that war and the loss still echoes through our family.

[TexGuy]

And God said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is indeed mortal and their days of life will be 120 years." (Genesis 6:3)

He still had 11 years to go ... God bless this Scotsman ...

[sandbar]

May you rest in peace brave Sir.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

.

Sacrifice begets Sacrifice.


MEL's -PASSION- sparked by -WE WERE SOLDIERS-

http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1085111/posts


...just for the LOVE of it.

.

[wireman]

1896-2005

Lived in three centuries.

Amazing.

[IronJack]

Wow. Truly a witness to history. And an end to an era.

[Jackknife]

Ping

[Bringbackthedraft]

Brings one back to when the last CW vet died in the 50s. My generation still had a few around in the late 40's - 50's. Soon we'll be reading about the last WWII vet. Speak to them now, their stories won't be available in a few more years.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Statement: "Last veteran of World War One dies at 109 (Scotland)"

Response: Ave atque vale frater.

[U S Army EOD]

When I was in Scotland I was in a small town that had a huge war memorial and very long list of names. I asked about it and was told the ratio of young men to women at the end of WWI was 15 women to 1 man in that town.

During the Battle of the Somme on the 1st July 1916 the British literally lined up 27 divisions and charged 16 German divisions. By that evening over 58,000 British soldiers lay dead or wounded on that small battlefield. About 1 of 3 were dead. The battle lasted into the winter of that year. The British lost 420,000 men, the French lost 200,000 men and the Germans lost about 500,000 men. The British penetration at its furtherest point was 12km.

Pray we never see anything like that.

[Eva]

Thanks for posting, have a good holiday.