List of last surviving World War I veterans by country

This is a list of the last surviving World War I veterans by country. The last living veteran of World War I (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918) was Florence Green, a British citizen who served in the Allied armed forces, and who died 4 February 2012, aged 110.^[1] The last combat veteran was Claude Choules who served in the British Royal Navy (and later the Royal Australian Navy) and died 5 May 2011, aged 110.^[2] The last veteran who served in the trenches was Harry Patch (British Army) who died on 25 July 2009, aged 111. The last Central Powers veteran, Franz Künstler of Austria-Hungary, died on 27 May 2008 at the age of 107.

The total number of participating personnel is estimated by the Encyclopædia Britannica at 65,038,810. There were approximately 9,750,103 military deaths during the conflict.

Veterans, for this purpose, are defined as people who were members of the armed forces of one of the combatant nations up to and including the date of the Armistice. This policy may vary from the policy in actual use in some countries.

List

Country	Name	Death date	Age
Armenia[3]	Senekerim Arakelian[4]	9 September 2000	98 years
Austrian Empire[5]	August Bischof[6]	4 March 2006	105 years
Australia[7]	John Campbell Ross[8]	3 June 2009	110 years
Belgium	Cyriel Barbary[9]	16 September 2004	105 years
Brazil	Waldemar Levy Cardoso	13 May 2009	108 years
Bulgaria
Canada	John Babcock[10]	18 February 2010	109 years
China	Zhu Guisheng[11]	5 March 2002	106 years
Czechoslovakian Legions[3]	Alois Vocásek[12]	9 August 2003	107 years
France	Pierre Picault[13][14]	20 November 2008	109 years
German Empire	Erich Kästner[15]	1 January 2008	107 years
Greece
The Hejaz[3]
Hungarian Kingdom[5]	Franz Künstler[16]	27 May 2008	107 years
Indian Empire[7]	Robert Francis Ruttledge[17]	12 January 2002	103 years
Italy	Delfino Borroni[18]	26 October 2008	110 years
Japan	Matsuda Chiaki	6 November 1995	99 years
Montenegro	Danilo Dajković[19]	14 September 1993	98 years
Newfoundland[7]	Wallace Pike[20]	11 April 1999	99 years
New Zealand[7]	Bright Williams[21]	13 February 2003	105 years
Ottoman Empire	Yakup Satar[22]	2 April 2008	110 years
Polish forces[3]	Stanisław Wycech[23]	12 January 2008	105 years
Portugal	José Ladeira[24]	5 May 2003	107 years
Romania	Gheorghe Pănculescu[25]	9 January 2007	103 years
Russian Empire	Mikhail Krichevsky[26][27]	26 December 2008	111 years
Serbia	Aleksa Radovanović[28]	22 June 2004	103 years
Siam	Yod Sangrungruang[29]	9 October 2003	106 years
South Africa[7]	Norman Kark[30][31]	March 2000	102 years
United Kingdom	Florence Green[32]	4 February 2012	110 years
United States	Frank Buckles[33]	27 February 2011	110 years

See also

• List of last surviving veterans of military insurgencies and wars

References

1. Blackmore, David (7 February 2012). "Norfolk First World War Veteran Dies". EDP24. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
2. Carman, Gerry (6 May 2011). "Last man who served in two world wars dies, 110". The Age. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
3. Accorded belligerent status at the Paris Peace Conference.
4. Juliette Funes (2013-04-11). "Montebello hosts exhibit commemorating 98th anniversary of Armenian Genocide". San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Retrieved 2015-07-03.
5. Austria and Hungary were component, technically sovereign, nations within the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
6. "Autriche" (in French). Ders Des Ders. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
7. A self-governing Dominion under the British Empire.
8. "Australia's oldest man and Digger Jack Ross dies aged 110". The Age. Retrieved 2011-02-15.
9. "Belgique" (in French). Ders Des Ders. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
10. Goldstein, Richard (2010-02-24). "..John Babcock, Last Canadian World War I Veteran, Dies at 109". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
11. O'Neill, Mark (March 3, 2014). The Chinese Labour Corps. UK: Penguin Books.
12. "REPUBLIQUE TCHEQUE" (in French). Ders Des Ders. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
13. "france" (in French). Ders Des Ders. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
14. The French government, under whose legal definition of a WWI veteran as having served six months during the war years Picault did not qualify, officially recognized Lazare Ponticelli, who died March 12, 2008, as the last poilu.
15. "Germany's 'last' WWI veteran dies". BBC. January 2008. Retrieved 2010-11-20.
16. "Franz Künstler, Veteran of 2 Wars, Dies at 107". The New York Times. 2008-05-30. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
17. "Outstanding ornithologist and a founder of Irish Wildbird Conservancy", The Irish Times, 2002-01-19
18. "Delfino Borroni: Italy’s last surviving veteran of the First World War". The Times. 2008-10-30. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
19. Петнаестогодишњица упокојења Митрополита црногорско-приморског Г. Данила (1895-1993) (in Serbian). Serbian Orthodox Church. 2008-09-12. Retrieved 2013-07-06.
20. "Last of Newfoundland's WW1 vets passes away". CBC. 1999-04-19. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
21. "The last Great War veterans". RNZRSA. February 2003. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
22. "Yakup Satar". The Times. 2008-04-03. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
23. "Poland’s WWI veteran Stanislaw passes away". Oman Tribune. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
24. Silva, Carlos (2005-09-07). "1643 portugueses mortos na grande guerra em França" (in Portuguese). Fórum de Genealogia. Retrieved 2010-11-21. Filipe Prista Lucas, a GRG correspondent says (translated from Portuguese) "According to the information I hold, the last Portuguese veteran of World War I died in 2003. His name was Jose Luis Ladeira, and he died on May 5, 2003, in Goshen Valley, Miranda do Corvo, 107 years old."
25. "ROUMANIE" (in French). Ders Des Ders. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
26. Последний в мире ветеран Первой мировой живет в Донецке (фото) (in Russian). Интернет-газета Донбасса. 2008-02-22. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
27. "Oldest known Ukrainian Jew dies at 111". JTA. 2009-01-05. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
28. Racić, M. (2004-06-27). "ODLAZAK POSLEDNJEG SRPSKOG SOLUNCA" (in Serbian). Kurir. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
29. "Last WW1 veteran dies". Taipei Times. 2003-10-11. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
30. Printing World (2000-04-17). "Longest serving Stationer dies at the wonderful age of 102". Highbeam Business. Retrieved 2010-11-04.
31. Ashley, Mike (2010-11-11). "Collecting Crime: London Mystery Magazine - Part Two". Crime Time. Retrieved 2010-11-21.
32. "Last surviving veteran of First World War dies aged 110". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2012-02-07.
33. Courson, Paul (2011-02-28). "Last living U.S. World War I veteran dies". CNN. Retrieved 2011-02-28.