Andrew motion harry patch

Any one of them could have been me. Millions of men came to fight in this war and I find it incredible that I am the only one left.

Herr Kuentz is a very nice gentleman however. He is all for a united Europe and peace — and so am I". Kuentz had brought along a tin of Alsatian biscuits and Patch gave him a bottle of Somerset cider in return. In December , Patch was given a present of bottles of Patch's Pride Cider, which has been named after him and produced by the Gaymer Cider Company. War isn't worth one life" and in July , Patch voiced his outrage over plans to build a motorway in northern France over cemeteries of the First World War.

On 16 December , Patch was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Bristol, whose buildings he helped construct in the s. He was chosen for this honour as he was a member of the workforce that originally helped build the tower, which was opened on 9 June by King George V, an event which Patch also attended.

Upon receiving this degree, he became recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest person to have ever received an honorary degree, at the age of years, days. In July , marking the 90th anniversary of the beginning of the Battle of Passchendaele, Patch revisited the site of the battle in Flanders, to pay his respects to the fallen on both sides.

He was accompanied by a historian, Richard van Emden. On this occasion, Patch described war as the "calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings" and said that "war isn't worth one life.

In August , Patch's autobiography The Last Fighting Tommy was published, making him one of the oldest authors ever. The memorial reads,. This stone is erected to the memory of fallen comrades, and to honour the courage, sacrifice and passing of the Great War generation. On 18 July , with the death of Henry Allingham, Patch became the oldest surviving veteran and also the oldest man in the United Kingdom.

The penultimate Western Front veteran, the year-old Fernand Goux of France, who died on 9 November , fought for 8 days. He came out unscathed, unlike Patch and the last Alpine Front veteran, year-old Delfino Borroni of Italy, who died on 26 October Patch was also the last surviving Tommy, since the death on 4 April of Netherwood Hughes, who was still in training when the war ended. The penultimate fighting Tommy, Harold Lawton, died on 24 December We came across a lad from A company.

He was ripped open from his shoulder to his waist by shrapnel and lying in a pool of blood. When we got to him, he said: 'Shoot me'.

He was beyond human help and, before we could draw a revolver, he was dead. And the final word he uttered was 'Mother. It's an image that has haunted me all my life, seared into my mind. The award was presented to Patch on his st birthday. He received the award from Jean-Michel Veranneman de Watervliet, Belgium's Ambassador to the United Kingdom, at a ceremony in the Ambassador's residence in London, on 22 September , which coincidentally was the 91st anniversary of the day he was wounded in action and three of his closest friends killed.

This was subsequently lost and on 20 September , at a ceremony at Bath Fire Station, Patch was presented with a replacement medal. The medals are unofficial and not a part of the official order of wear in any Commonwealth realm. Like this: Like Loading Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:.

Email required Address never made public. Our catalogue store includes many more recordings which you can download to your device. Username or Email Address. Remember Me. Lost your password? The Life of Harry Patch. The Life of Harry Patch I. Andrew Motion in the Poetry Store. When he has taken his place, and the whole company are settled at last, their padre appears out of nowhere, pausing a moment in front of each and every one to slip a wafer of dry mud onto their tongues.

The former soldier who had fought at Passchendaele died in aged The reader is immediately taken to tense moments at dawn when it appears that a young Captain is about to lead his troops over the top. Andrew Motion was born in London in , moving to Essex when he was Motion was Poet Laureate from During his tenure he established the Poetry Archive, the only online library of audio recordings of poets reading their own work. He was knighted for his services to literature in He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.