A very timely and sad article on the BBC today. I will be wearing my poppy tomorrow that a friend of mine in Australia sent me. I would ask all Xmarks members to please take a moment at 11.00 am their time and remember the fallen.

Todd

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
-- Laurence Binyon, "The Ode to the Fallen"

Final Australia WWI veteran dies
The last Australian veteran to see active service in World War I has died, aged 106.
William Evan Allan joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1914, aged only 14.

He served on a cruiser, HMAS Encounter, until 1918, escorting troop convoys and tracking German warships. He remained in the navy for 34 years.

Mr Allan, who also saw active service in World War II and retired with the rank of lieutenant, will be given a state funeral in Melbourne.

Born in the New South Wales town of Bega in 1899, Mr Allan enlisted at the start of World War I and served as an able seaman from 1915.


The HMAS Encounter sailed in the Pacific and Indian oceans.
Mr Allan remained in the navy until 1947, and was the only surviving Australian veteran of both world wars.

He spent much of World War II aboard the cruiser HMAS Australia, but according to friends was reluctant to talk about his experiences.

Australia's Minister for Veterans Affairs, De-Anne Kelly, said his death meant an entire generation who left Australia to defend their nation and the British Empire had been lost.

One Australian WWI veteran is still living, John Campbell Ross, 106, but although he enlisted in 1918 he never saw active service.

Five survivors of the war are believed to be still alive in Britain.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...ic/4351852.stm

Published: 2005/10/18 02:56:30 GMT

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