Claude Choules

For the warship, see HMAS Choules (L100).

Claude Choules
Claude Choules, aged 14 in 1915
Born(1901-03-03)3 March 1901
Pershore, Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom[1]
Died(2011-05-05)5 May 2011
(aged 110 years, 63 days)
Salter Point, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Allegiance United Kingdom
 Australia
Service / branch Royal Navy (1915–26)
 Royal Australian Navy (1926–56)
Years of service1915–1956
RankChief Petty Officer
Battles / wars
AwardsBritish War Medal
Victory Medal Ribbon
War Medal (1939–1945) UK Ribbon
Australian Service Medal (1939–1945) Ribbon
Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Ribbon
Centenary Medal
Australian Defence Medal
Naval Long Service and Good Conduct Medal
Choules and his future wife Ethel Wildgoose, aboard SS Diogenes, 1926. They were married for 76 years until her death aged 98.
PO Choules aboard HMAS Canberra, 1929
HMAS Choules in December 2011

Claude Stanley Choules (/ˈʃuːlz/;[2] 3 March 1901 – 5 May 2011) was a British-born military serviceman from Pershore, Worcestershire, who at the time of his death was the oldest combat veteran of the First World War from England, having served with the Royal Navy from 1915 until 1926. After having emigrated to Australia he served with the Royal Australian Navy, from 1926 until 1956, as a chief petty officer and was a naturalised Australian citizen.[3][4][5] He was the last surviving military witness to the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow in 1919 and the last surviving veteran to have served in both world wars. At the time of his death, he was the third-oldest verified military veteran in the world and the oldest known living man in Australia.[6] He was the seventh-oldest living man in the world. Choules became the oldest man born in the United Kingdom following the death of Stanley Lucas on 21 June 2010. Choules died at the age of 110 years and 63 days.[7] He had been the oldest British-born man; following his death, that honour went to Reverend Reginald Dean. In December 2011, the landing ship HMAS Choules was named after him, only the second Royal Australian Navy vessel named after a sailor.

  1. ^ "1911 census". Archived from the original on 23 July 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  2. ^ Last known World War I combat veteran dies, 5 May 2011, National Public Radio, www.npr.org
  3. ^ "Claude Choules: the Last of the Last". The Telegraph. 5 May 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  4. ^ "Claude Choules: a place in history". The Telegraph. 5 May 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  5. ^ "Obituary: Chief Petty Officer Claude Choules". The Telegraph. 5 May 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  6. ^ Agence France-Presse (27 July 2009). "Claude Choules says WWI was 'boring'". The Australian. Archived from the original on 25 May 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2008. Mr Choules was informed by his 80-year-old daughter Anne Pow over the weekend that the death of 111-year-old Harry Patch, Britain's last soldier who fought in the Great War's infamous trenches, had made him the country's sole survivor.
  7. ^ "Australia's last WWI veteran dies ABC News". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 5 May 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2011.