No More Diggers.

[den]

The death of William Evan Allan in Melbourne overnight at 106 represents one of the greatest milestone's in this nation's short history. His passing severs our living link with World War 1 and the founding of the Australian Navy.

William Evan Allan 1899 - 2005

" Of the 330,000 servicemen who served overseas in World War 1, Evan Allan was the very last man standing. His death is the end of an era. His passing closes the door once and for all on that "Great War" which, with its 15 million death toll, was meant to be "the war to end all wars"."

cheers, mate.

Comments

[faxpaladin.livejournal.com]

And as year followed year, they'd all disappear --
Now there's no one to march there at all...

Cheers.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

Aiya. All told, that's a respectable run of things.

Canada lost our last VC recipient a couple of months ago; I think our last WWI veterans passed away within the past year or so, but that might have "just" been for a specific military branch.

Especially with November 11 coming up fairly soon, I wonder how this sort of thing is gonna affect how people look back in several years.

[arcturax.livejournal.com]

Wonder if there are any left here... Sad he's passed on, as people like that are generally fountains of wisdom. War is pretty awful, but a lot of times the aged survivors are some of the most serious, level headed people out there.

On a related topic, my great grandmother on my dad's grandmother's side... she was born in the same year, though she died in 1999. She was on the other side of the war, as a civilian. She fled Germany in the midst of the war and came to America and started a new life. It's pretty amazing how many effects that war had. Without that war, I wouldn't be here, nor would a lot of other people, though on the other hand, millions more would have been alive. So yeah, huge impact, but it's sad how little attention WWI gets. History books skim over it like "Ok lets get to the good part... WWII!", as do the documentaries on the history channel and other places. It's rare to see any shows about the first world war, enough that it's largely a mystery to most people who didn't go through it.

[guruwench.livejournal.com]

Cheers.

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting that.

[torakiyoshi.livejournal.com]

I've been fearing this day for a long time. It's always hard for historians to watch great world events pass out of livving memory. I think we have a few left up here, but they are few and far between.

Have the best

-=TK

Cheers

[penpouring.livejournal.com]

Here's the link to our nation's last ~ Canada's 'Smoky' Smith (http://www.macleans.ca/topstories/canada/article.jsp?content=20050815_110342_110342)

Tough blokes those guys (and gals) of an era we'll never fully understand. I wish, like early cavemen, we could still inherit and remember our ancestors' memories ~ it might be a different world today if we all could recall the battles that got us to where we are today.

Thanks for posting that. Lest we forget.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

*Salute*