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

[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.