The Last Australian WW1 Active Service Vet Dies

[Cam63]

William Evan Allan, who died in Melbourne earlier today was 106 years old.

He fought as a member of the RAN ( Royal Australian Navy ) in both World Wars.

May he Rest In Peace.

[Boldido]

William Evan Allan, who died in Melbourne earlier today was 106 years old.

He fought as a member of the RAN ( Royal Australian Navy ) in both World Wars.

May he Rest In Peace.

Damn you, you sneaky Kraut bastards!!! It took eighty seven years, but they finally got him. How did they do it? Shot in the back? Sunk his battleship?

Wait a tic...106? Sounds like he had a good run. RIP old timer.

[OzBat!]

I was just thinking about this earlier today. As a nation, we're very young. Our national identity was forged at Gallipoli, Dunkirk, Beersheba, Normandy. It then grew in WWII, and the Vietnam war. It's become greater than the reality, or our part in it. This national identity, of being battlers fighting successfully and standing shoulder-to-shoulder way above our weight class, is something that's a part of us at some level or other. Even though very, very few of us actually do any kind of national service, we still like to pretend we're those brave steel-hard young men proving themselves on the world scene in the harshest conditions, and not being found wanting.

With this death, of the last WWI soldier who served overseas (there's one other gent still alive who was part of the service, but never left the country), we've suddenly had a big disconnection from that past, however fictional our current association with it may be.

It's sad. And sobering.