August 13th, 2009 - Honoring our Great War dead
by Rudyard GriffithsViews for this post: 1,379
Last week Britain laid to rest its last surviving soldier of the Great War. Harry Patch, machine gunner and Ypres veteran, was the United Kingdom’s final living link to a conflict that killed almost one million Britons and changed forever the course of human history.
As one would expect, the citizens and government of Great Britain observed Harry Patch¹s passing with the solemnity that such a watershed moment deserved. In addition to holding a moving ceremony at Wells Cathedral involving thousands of mourners, the U.K. government spent three years organizing an ambitious nation-wide day of commemoration that saw local communities and schools honour Britain’s last ”Tommy.”
The deep desire of the British to pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of Harry Patch and the generation of young men he fought with made me remember, with a keen sense of regret, the passing of Canada¹s last combat veteran of the Great War, Charles Clarence Laking.
Jack Mitchell is a poet and writer living in Toronto, author of two novels for young adults and a Canadian epic poem. His work has appeared in Geist, the National Post, and the LRC. He is a graduate of McGill University and of Stanford University.
