Harry Patch's death cuts our last living link to World War One

Today the the funeral took place of the last British soldier to serve in the trenches of World War One, Harry Patch.

Mr. Patch did not speak about the war until be was 100 years old, but since then he has often spoken out about the perils of going to war. Harry was by all accounts not keen on a full military funeral, so was it right to see such a fuss made over it?

For a man who clearly did not enjoy his time in the army it did seem a little inappropriate for the military to dominate his funeral. After all, out of his 111 years very few of these were spent in the army.

Link with the past

But of course this really misses the point. Today was not about the ordinary man Harry Patch, it was about our last living link with this historic event, the first world war. Harry just happened to be the last man standing.

So then it was perhaps inevitable for his funeral to be met with such pomp and cirumstance, and perhaps Harry would have understood this. Speaking of Harry Patch in this way sounds like I knew what he thought or what he was like, but of course this is wholly untrue.

This is precisley the problem. Recently some people have used Harry Patch to prop up their cause, most recently anti-war protesters, but Mr. Patch never endorsed any of these causes. All he did was stay alive long enough for people to think they owned a piece of him.

Poem

Perhaps the best coverage of Harry Patch's life came in the form of a poem written by Andrew Motion, the out-going poet loreate. The last verse of which is as follows:

"You grow a moustache, check the mirror, notice
you're forty years old, then next day shave it off,
check the mirror again - and see you're seventy,
but life is like that now, suddenly and gradually
everyone you know dies and still comes to visit
or you head back to them, it's not clear which
only where it happens: a safe bedroom upstairs
by the look of things, although when you sit late
whispering with the other boys in the Lewis team,
smoking your pipe upside-down to hide the fire,
and the nurses on night duty bring folded sheets
to store in the linen cupboard opposite, all it takes
is someone switching on the light - there is that flash,
or was until you said, and the staff blacked the window."

Motion's poem (which can be found here) tells the life story of a man who lived a normal life in South-West England. It obviously includes his time spent at war, but unlike most coverage of Harry, it does not confine his 111 years entirely to the trenches.

Never forget

To risk sounding as if I knew him again, Harry was not a willing soldier but did his duty, even being wounded in the process, but his death meant so much for so many people because of what he represented.

The First World War should never be forgotten and now that we have lost our only living link to this event, it is now more important than ever that we never forget the sacrifice that our soldiers have made and continue to make.