Last Briton to serve in WWI dies at 110
ASSOCIATED PRESS February 7, 2012 8:48AM
In this Feb. 19, 2010 photo released by the British Ministry of Defense, MOD, shows Florence Green, left, on her 109th birthday being presented with a birthday cake by LAC Hannah Shaw on behalf of the RAF at her home in King's Lynn, east England. Florence Green, the world's last known veteran of World War I, has died at the age of 110, the care home where she lived said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Sac Chris Hill/MoD, HO) NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
Updated: March 9, 2012 8:10AM
LONDON — Florence Green never saw the front line. She spent the war serving food, not dodging bullets.
But Mrs. Green, who died Saturday in eastern England at 110, was the last known surviving veteran of World War I. She died Saturday in eastern England, two weeks before her 111th birthday.
She was born Florence Beatrice Patterson in London and joined the Women’s Royal Air Force in September 1918 at 17.
The service trained women to work as mechanics, drivers and in other jobs to free men for front-line duty. She worked as a steward in the officers’ mess at the Narborough aerodrome and then at RAF Marham . She remembered her wartime service with affection. “I met dozens of pilots and would go on dates,” she said in a 2008 interview. . . . In many ways, I had the time of my life.”
After the war, she raised three children with her husband, Walter Green.
On her last birthday, asked what it was like to be 110, she said: “It’s not much different to being 109.” AP
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