Claude ‘Chuckles’ Choules, the last British male WWI veteran dies
The last known male British combat veteran of the First World War has died, May 05 2011, in Australia aged 110.
Claude Choules was not only the last surviving combat veteran of the First World War, but also the final person alive who saw active service in both world wars.
Claude Choules, known to his comrades as ‘Chuckles’, died in his sleep at Gracewood Hostel in Salter Point near Perth today, Thursday 5 May 2011.
Mr Choules was born in Pershore, Worcestershire, and raised in nearby Wyre Piddle, from where he embarked on a long and eventful career in the Armed Forces.
In April 1915, Mr Choules joined the Nautical Training Ship Mercury before transferring to the Royal Navy in October 1916 to serve aboard the Naval Training Ship HMS Circe.
In 1917, he joined battleship HMS Revenge and, whilst serving aboard it, witnessed the surrender of the German Imperial Navy at the Firth of Forth in 1918, ten days after the Armistice, and also witnessed the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow.
After the war, Mr Choules served as a peacekeeper in the Black Sea and in 1926 was posted as an instructor to Flinders Naval Depot, near Melbourne.
It was on the passenger liner to Australia that he met his future wife Ethel, who died three years ago.
He transferred to the Royal Australian Navy and after a brief spell in the reserves rejoined as a Chief Petty Officer in 1932.
During the Second World War, Mr Choules was chief demolition officer for the western half of Australia; it would have been his responsibility to blow up the key strategic harbour of Fremantle, near Perth, if Japan had invaded.
Mr Choules joined the Naval Dockyard Police after finishing his service.
Despite his impressive military career, Mr Choules became a pacifist. He was known to have disagreed with the celebration of Australia’s most important war memorial holiday, Anzac Day, and refused to march in the annual commemoration parades.
He took a creative writing course at the age of 80 and recorded his memoirs for his family which formed the basis of his autobiography, ‘The Last of the Last’, which was published in 2009.
Mr Coules is survived by three children, 11 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.
The last three British male First World War veterans living in the UK – Bill Stone, Henry Allingham and Harry Patch – all died in 2009.
Another Briton, Florence Green, who turned 110 in February and was a waitress in the Women’s Royal Air Force, is now thought to be the world’s last known surviving Service member of the First World War.
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