France's last WWI veteran has died

Hagar

Quoted from BBC News.

France's last surviving veteran of World War One, Lazare Ponticelli, has died at the age of 110.

President Nicolas Sarkozy announced the death on Wednesday, paying tribute to the last "poilu", as French WWI veterans were known.
"Today, I express the nation's deep emotion and infinite sadness," he said.
Mr Ponticelli, originally Italian, had lied about his age in order to join the French Foreign Legion in August 1914,
aged 16, Mr Sarkozy said.
There are a handful of surviving WWI veterans from other countries, including British pilot Henry Allingham and Austro-Hungarian artillery man Franz Kunstler.
France's oldest surviving WWI veteran, Louis de Cazenave, died in January, also aged 110.
The last of Germany's veterans from the war died also died in January.

Mr Ponticelli was born on 7 December 1897 in Emilia Romagna, northern Italy.
He made his way, at the age of nine, to France to join his two brothers, and worked in Paris as a chimney sweep and paper boy.
Mr Sarkozy said there would be a national day of remembrance for France's war dead in the coming days as he marked Mr Ponticelli's death.
"I salute the Italian boy who came to Paris to earn his living and chose to become French, first in August 1914 when he lied about his age to sign up at 16 for the Foreign Legion to defend his adopted homeland," the French president said in a statement.
"Then a second time in 1921, when he decided to remain here for good."
Mr Ponticelli, who lived with his daughter in a southern suburb of Paris, had initially refused a government offer of a state funeral, the AFP news agency reported.
But he later decided to accept "in the name of all those who died, men and women", during WWI.


"Poilu", a word meaning hairy or tough, is the affectionate name given since Napoleonic times to French foot soldiers.

boneless

What a life he must have had. The Bearded Ones were a tough breed. And the fact that he fought so well for his adoptive country is a lesson to us all.

topper75

WWI is like the Crimea or Franco/Prussian war now, something that only exists in books. We are not far off the centenary in 2014. Tempis fugit.

ojewriej

German last surviving veteran died few weeks ago as well.

steyr fan

I'm happy to have met several Veterans of WW1 a few years ago while on a visit to Ypres & the Somme.

When they're gone, they're gone.

RIP

FiSe

Yep. It'll be 90 years this autumn since the guns fell silent...
Still, this is the war which changed this world forever.

Johnnio13

Haven't read that poem before. It is still so true.

RIP Lazare Ponticelli

Fratton Fred

oh to sit with a guy like this and talk for a few hours, what an enormous amount they could tell you. All the "Uncle Albert" types were considered boring when I was a kid, but I'd love to talk to them now. My old scout leader was a RN commander in WWII and he would often talk about being sunk while escorting a Malta convoy and how they put out fires during an air attack etc. We always looked to the heavens when he started, but looking back they were amazing stories.

RIP old feller.

Latchy

Seems there are only 8 french soldiers left alive form WW1 and even less in Britain ,2 i think .

wylo

Fratton Fred wrote: »

oh to sit with a guy like this and talk for a few hours, what an enormous amount they could tell you. All the "Uncle Albert" types were considered boring when I was a kid, but I'd love to talk to them now.

Its true, I really didnt appreciate it when I was young, but Id nearly pay to sit down and listen to a few of the stories now.

ojewriej

One of my grandfathers was in Wehrmaht, another in Polish 2nd corpse under General Anders - they were the ones who captured Monte Cassino. Also had an uncle who served with Polish Corpse within Soviet Army. It was great craic when they got together, used to love listening to their stories. They were the ones who got me interested in WWII.

Cutaway

One of my ancestors was in India in the early 20th century, Another one in the FFL and died in Morocco/Algeria in the 1930s.