# France's last WWI veteran dies at 110 - AP



## Yrys (12 Mar 2008)

France's last WWI veteran dies at 110



> PARIS, France (AP) -- Lazare Ponticelli, France's last veteran of World War I, has died. He was 110. Lazare Ponticelli was born in Italy but
> fought for France in World War I.
> 
> French President Nicolas Sarkozy expressed "deep emotion and sadness" at Ponticelli's death, which Sarkozy's office announced in a statement
> ...



Article on link


----------



## tomahawk6 (18 Mar 2008)

Legion honor guard.


----------



## Brett2692 (18 Mar 2008)

Its a Damn shame  
Does anybody know how many Canadian ww1 veterans are still alive?


----------



## Yrys (18 Mar 2008)

Brett2692 said:
			
		

> Its a Damn shame



Why is it a shame ? Because he died at 110 ?


----------



## davidk (18 Mar 2008)

A shame? No, a fact of life that everyone dies sooner or later. Sad to see him go, but no shame there...

A simple google search for 'surviving veterans of world war I provides the answer to your question, Brett.


----------



## Brett2692 (18 Mar 2008)

Its a damn shame to loose another ww1 vet, I checked out wikipedia and there is only 13 verified veterans of ww1 still alive today...


----------



## Yrys (18 Mar 2008)

Brett2692 said:
			
		

> Its a damn shame to loose another ww1 vet, I checked out wikipedia and there is only 13 verified veterans of ww1 still alive today...



I'm not sure how much Surviving veterans of World War I's wikipedia can be trust, even with the latest update being recent, 
but I find it surprising that there are 2 "unverified" veteran. I would have thought a "government-sanctioned body" had enough time to check it.

I agree with HighlandIslander about the fact that death is a human life phenomenon. Considering their age, and that we don't know anything about their health and quality of life,
I'm more prone to say : "kudos's to you, gentleman" ...


----------



## Spencer100 (19 Mar 2008)

I think the shame is that we have lost one of the last remaining living links to the past.  We can one longer ask questions to people who lived it. No more more living history.


----------



## ghyslyn (19 Mar 2008)

it's a frightening fact of life to think about, when I was a kid there was a good amount of WW1 veterans still alive, but now I realise that someday we'll come to the point of having none left


----------



## tomahawk6 (19 Mar 2008)

The WW2 generation is fast departing this world and a living WW2 vet in 10 years will be rare.


----------



## marshall sl (19 Mar 2008)

Last man standing
Vanishing generation; Originally there were 619,636 -- now, there is just one: 107-year-old Jack Babcock, the lone surviving veteran of Canada's First World War army
http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=d5033f61-94b6-4a80-958f-41c19c7cde66


----------



## Yrys (9 May 2008)

marshall sl said:
			
		

> Last man standing
> Vanishing generation; Originally there were 619,636 -- now, there is just one: 107-year-old Jack Babcock, the lone surviving veteran of Canada's First World War army
> http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=d5033f61-94b6-4a80-958f-41c19c7cde66



Speaking of which :

Canada's oldest WWI vet a Canadian again



> Canada's last link to the First World War is a citizen again. Jack Babcock is now 107-years-old and living in Spokane, Washington. But he wasn't always an American.
> He grew up in a rural community, on a farm near Kingston, Ont. He's now Canada's only surviving veteran from the Great War.
> 
> Babcock tried to join the Canadian army in 1915 at the tender age of 15. He was young, but tenacious, and he didn't mind lying to fight for his cause. He finally made it
> ...


----------

