Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3775 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-06
• Binding: Hardcover
• 238 pages

Synopsis
Harry Patch, the last British soldier alive to have fought in the trenches of the First World War, is now 108 years old and one of very few people who can directly recall the horror of that conflict. Harry vividly remembers his childhood in the Somerset countryside of Edwardian England. He left school in 1913 to become an apprentice plumber but three years later was conscripted, serving as a machine gunner in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry. Fighting in the mud and trenches during the Battle of Passchendaele, he saw a great many of his comrades die, and in one dreadful moment the shell that wounded him killed his three closest friends.In vivid detail he describes daily life in the trenches, the terror of being under intense artillery fire, and the fear of going over the top. Then, after the Armistice, the soldiers' frustration at not being quickly demobbed led to a mutiny in which Harry was soon caught up. The Second World War saw Harry in action on the home front as a fire-fighter during the bombing of Bath. He also warmly describes his friendship with American GIs preparing to go to France, and, years later, his tears when he saw their graves.

Late in life Harry achieved fame, meeting the Queen and taking part in the BBC documentary "The Last Tommies", finally shaking hands with a German veteran of the artillery and speaking out frankly to Prime Minister Tony Blair about the soldiers shot for cowardice in the First World War. "The Last Fighting Tommy" is the story of an ordinary man's extraordinary life.

Customer Reviews

Well worth a read
Forget all the fuss about the last living tommy bit, this is a really nice snap shot of one mans ordinary life which happened to include a spell in the trenches of WW1.

The book gives anyone of my age (42) a snapshot of what it was like to live through 2 world wars and the simple rural life that Harry has enjoyed.

His in-sites into life before the war and then during and after are both well written and interesting, he comes across as someone who was "lucky" to survive the war and is grateful for that but also a little bitter to have been put through that in the first place.

If you read autobiographies of the rich and famous this is a good book about a normal life with some lovely stories and some horrific experiences.

First rate
Sometimes, I reach the end of a book and wish that it had been much longer, and this was one of them. It was compelling.

Harry Patch's story is interesting in that he is so very ordinary yet he has achieved iconic status by virtue of his longevity. A flawed individual (stubborn, unworldly, apparently incapable of being single, unhealed rifts with his children) who represents the stoicism, courage and sacrifice of a generation. He is an everyman, a typical tommy.

I would have liked more insight into what he thinks about the changing face of the world since the Great War; the huge social changes, mass immigration to Britain, the creation of the welfare state, Mrs Thatcher, Diana, 9/11, the prospect of a black/female President. But that's probably because I loved the book so much, I want more!

I'll be buying more of v. Emden's books, that's for sure.

The Last Voice
In many respects Harry Patch is an unremarkable man - after all he has probably lived more quiet and uneventful years than any of us ever will. Even the terrible fate that befell the 19 year old Harry was shared by millions of other soldiers. But then of course Harry is the last of them, and after eighty years of hiding his grief, he has reluctantly and finally told of his experiences, almost as a catharsis and a tribute to his comrades who never returned and whom he still misses.
Richard Van Emden has written the book perfectly, by ensuring that we see Harry as an ordinary man, not as a solder, and the first section of the book is Cider with Rosie revisited and set in the Mendips. When Harry tells his war tale, Van Emden gently and unobtrusively informs Harry's incredibly vivid memory with background information, although Harry's mind remains remarkably sharp. Moreover, Paschendaele is not the climax of the book, but rightly kept in its chronological place so we, like Harry sense its horror receding but never quite disappearing. Mr Patch comes across as a feisty but chivalrous man,with a stubborn streak that has probably helped to carry him to his 110th year. I read this book partly to learn about Harry, but also as homage to the tragic modesty of a lost generation that now has no other voice but his, and I was not disappointed.