PM mourns passing of Harry Patch

tauringhuang.

The Prime Minister has said the nation will unite to honour the memory of First World War veteran Harry Patch, who passed away on Saturday at the age of 111.

Mr Patch, who was Britain’s oldest man, served in the trenches in 1917 and fought in the battle of Passchendaele, in which more than 70,000 British troops died.

He became the last surviving British soldier to fight in the First World War following the death of fellow veteran Henry Allingham a week ago.

The PM said:

“I had the honour of meeting Harry, and I share his family’s grief at the passing of a great man. I know that the whole nation will unite today to honour the memory, and to take pride in the generation that fought the Great War. The noblest of all the generations has left us, but they will never be forgotten. We say today with still greater force - ‘We will remember them’.”