Armistice day and the words of Harry Patch

Harry Patch was the last Tommy. Basically, the last British Soldier who fought in the trenches of World War 1, one of the most brutal wars in modern history.

On remembrance day, we remember the dead and at the same, praise their bravery but at the same time question the rationale of their deaths, in wars started by politicians. These are not my words solely but those of one of the bravest and most honourable Britons that ever lived.

Patch's philosophy -based on his experience- was to hate war and all it stood for, whilst maintaining great respect for the soldiers who give their lives on all sides of the divide in wars, but with some measure of disdain for the politicians who start the wars in the first place.

I recently watched a documentary- "The last voices of the great war" and to say the least, his account was tear-inducing, really moving.

I have below a number of quotes from Harry Patch's autobiography the Last Fighting Tommy

On surviving war- whilst at the cemetary at Flanders, overlooking the graves of dead soldiers:

1. “ Any one of them could have been me. Millions of men came to fight in this war and I find it incredible that I am the only one left.

Harry Patch On War:

2. "Too many died. War isn’t worth one life”

3. “ Its the calculated and condoned slaughter of human beings".

4. "We came across a lad from A company. He was ripped open from his shoulder to his waist by shrapnel and lying in a pool of blood. When we got to him, he said: 'Shoot me'. He was beyond human help and, before we could draw a revolver, he was dead. And the final word he uttered was 'Mother.' I remember that lad in particular. It's an image that has haunted me all my life, seared into my mind."

5. "...if any man tells you he went over the top and he wasn't scared, he's a damn liar."

6. "All those young lives lost in a war which ended across a table. Where's the sense in that?"

7. "War is organised murder and nothing else....politicians who took us to war should have been given the guns and told to settle their differences themselves, instead of organising nothing better than legalised mass murder"

He's said it all.

May their brave souls rest in peace