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Article from skynews


The last British survivor of the First World War trenches has been laid to rest after a funeral service at Wells Cathedral attended by friends and family, royalty and generals.

At 111, Harry Patch was the last of a generation of men who fought and died in the trenches of what was meant to be the war to end all wars.

Many thousands lined the route of his funeral cortege from his care home, where staff formed a guard of honour, to the high street, where the crowd burst into spontaneous applause as his coffin passed.

In keeping with Harry's wishes, the hearse was accompanied by soldiers from each of the French, Belgian, and German armed forces, to symbolise his lifelong desire for peace and reconciliation.

Soldiers of the 1st Battalion The Rifles - the modern-day equivalent of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, with whom he served - carried his coffin into Wells Cathedral.

Alongside Mr Patch's family and friends at the service are the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duchess of Gloucester.

"Harry would have wanted me to say 'Thank you'," said his friend Jim Ross as he began a personal tribute.

For 80 years, Mr Patch never spoke of the horrors he witnessed on the battlefield.
He saw the deaths of three of his close friends, members of the five-man machine gun crew he had fought with in the battle of Passchendaele.

He was badly wounded by the blast that killed them as they made their way back from the front line in 1917.

But when he turned 100, Mr Ross told the congregation, Harry faced a choice: "Keep the demons under control - or tell the world what it was really like. Harry let the demons out."

It was a decision that would cost him a terrible amount of pain and grief.

For the best part of a century, Harry had locked away the the awful things he had been through - only for them to return with a vengeance when he started to talk about them.

"At night, the demons tortured, and tormented, and terrified him," said Mr Ross.
"But Harry let them out so we could hear his message - of peace and reconciliation."

Several thousand people packed the green outside the cathedral to watch the service on a giant screen.

They stood in silence in the rain as the tributes were read, and sang along to the hymns and songs.

Many told Sky News they had come to bear witness to a moment of history - to mark the passing of Harry Patch the man, and with him the last of the generation of men who had given their lives in the service of the war that was meant to end all wars.
The cathedral bell tolled 111 times, one for each year of his life, the crowd outside applauded, and Henry John Patch, "Harry", the apprentice plumber from somerset, was laid to rest.

An ordinary man, who lived an extraordinary life - never to be forgotten.

R.I.P Harry Patch