Only five left

From the Telegraph this week.

Great War veteran dies aged 107

By Laura Clout
Last Updated: 2:02am BST 27/07/2007

One of Britain's last surviving First World War veterans has died aged 107, leaving only five British survivors of the 1914-18 campaign.
William Young, a former trench-based radio operator, was the last known veteran of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), the forerunner of the Royal Air Force.


He died in his sleep earlier this week in Perth, Western Australia, where he lived with his wife May and their son.
The eldest of six children, Mr Young was born in Lanarkshire in 1900. After moving from Scotland when he was 13, he enlisted in the RFC on his 18th birthday and trained as a radio operator.
In a memoir dictated for his family, Mr Young described how he narrowly escaped death in France when a German shell exploded three metres from his trench. "A fragment went through my jacket but missed my chest," he said.
In 1998 he was awarded the Legion d'honneur by the French government in recognition of his service there in 1918.
Of the five million British service personnel serving at the end of the First World War, only five are still alive, three of whom live in Britain.

We can't begin to appreciate the sacrifices made by our grandfathers during the Great War.
RIP

I always have a little tear in my eye when another one of these heroes goes on to the next life.

We owe them more than any of us ever showed.

Dik

RIP

I think most people (esp. in the US) can't begin to fathom the sacrifice these guys made for our freedoms.