Britain's oldest veteran inspires younger generation

02/05/2007

 Henry Allingham, aged 110, Britain's oldest surviving veteran of the First World War has brought to schoolchildren in Tamworth something that no history book could ever deliver: his own living memory. This remarkable man, nearly a century older than his attentive audience, had responded to an invitation to answer questions from the pupils at Wilnecote High School. It was a gift of history that they will never forget.

He spoke of giving two young German children Jaffa oranges at Christmas, calling them "Platinum dust", of chatting up girls in his uniform and , inevitably, the stark horror of war, when he fell into a shell hole one rainy night: "Dead rats in that shell hole, human flesh, all rotting, who knows what in there...it was terrible," he said.

Before Easter there were just four British World War I veterans left. Now there are only three, such is their growing frailty, and Henry wants to keep meeting as many young people for as long as he can. Said one nine year old boy: "Even though I have only spoken to Henry for an hour or so I feel like I know him and that the information he has told me I will remember for a very long time."