The last British survivor of WW1 is gone. I find myself fascinated by these handful of survivors who probably could never have imagined they’d live so long.

Read the whole thing. It’s a great article. Particularly this:

His most vivid memory of the war was of encountering a comrade whose torso had been ripped open by shrapnel. “Shoot me,” Mr. Patch recalled the soldier pleading.

The man died before Patch could draw his revolver.

“I was with him for the last 60 seconds of his life. He gasped one word – ‘Mother.’ That one word has run through my brain for 88 years. I will never forget it.”

And he didn’t. For 90+ years.