Remembering WWI vet Harry Patch

By Nick Southall
BBC Shropshire

Harry Patch chats to BBC Shropshire reporter Nick Southall

It finally came, the day I was going to meet Harry Patch. I wrote down a list of the questions I wanted to ask him.

I wanted to ask him about his connections with Shropshire as I waited nervously in the reception area of his Somerset nursing home.

I was warned even at that stage that Harry, who was then 109, may not want to talk.

I was about to meet the last surviving veteran to fight in the trenches in World War I.

WWI veteran Patch dies aged 111

Then the moment came. A member of staff popped her head around the corner and took me through to meet Harry. He was sitting in the dining room with his medals proudly displayed on his jacket. We shook hands and he gave me a big smile.

I can't remember exactly what I was thinking but I knew I had just shaken hands with somebody who fought, maybe alongside my relatives, during WWI. We moved into a private room and Harry was wheeled through in his wheelchair.

I didn't know what to expect but he soon made me feel at ease. By this stage Harry had been interviewed many times over the last few years by journalists like me, yet he was still willing to tell his story.

I decided I didn't want to go straight into the interview by asking him about the war, mainly because there's so much more to Harry than that.

We chatted about his connections with Shropshire. Harry met his first wife, Ada in Sutton Coldfield: "She was coming down some steps from the cinema (I was) rushing for a bus...I ran into her, knocked her down. I took her home... Then met her the next night."

Ada was originally from Hadley in Telford and soon the couple married at Holy Trinity Church in Wellington in 1919.

From there they went on their honey moon to Church Stretton before settling for a short time in the county. Harry also spoke about his love of the Wrekin which he had climbed on many occasions.

We then moved on to talk about his experiences of fighting in the war. As he spoke, I could tell that he found it difficult talking about the subject.

At one stage he talked about the time he saw a soldier's body in no man's land, as he started to describe what he saw, he then went quiet and we quickly changed the subject.

I then asked him about what his life was like after the war, but I could tell he was still thinking about the soldier in the shell hole.

We did get back onto the subject of the war and Harry talked about trench life. The mud, the water, the cat-sized rats and the stench. Harry didn't see the end of the war, he survived an explosion which killed three of his friends in the same machine gun crew.

He told me about the haunting memory that still occupied his mind - a soldier standing in full battle dress next to a grave.

Looking into his eyes I could only imagine what he saw on the WWI battlefields. I thought, here is a man who was lucky to survive the war and now he is the only surviving soldier who fought in the trenches.

And now with his death, it means WWI is truly consigned to history. A generation has now passed, but we must thank Harry not only for his sacrifice in fighting, but having the courage to talk about his experiences.

It is important to remember the sacrifice they all made and with his recollections we can now make sure their memories will live on for ever.