Claude Choules | |
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![]() Claude Choules, aged 14 in 1915 | |
Born | Pershore, Worcestershire, England, United Kingdom[1] | 3 March 1901
Died | (aged 110 years, 63 days) Salter Point, Perth, Western Australia, Australia | 5 May 2011
Allegiance | ![]() ![]() |
Service/ | ![]() ![]() |
Years of service | 1915–1956 |
Rank | Chief Petty Officer |
Battles/wars | |
Awards | British 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 |
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.
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.