Very little fanfare was given in the US, in fact I don't recall it being mentioned...Britian's last living veteran of World War One, Harry Patch, passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was 111 years old. According to the article in the LA Times, he never spoke of his service until he was a hundred years old. He was young when he went in and devastated at the loss of three men in his team when a shell exploded above them in September of 1917 at the battle of Passchendaele. The battle lasted three months costing half a million men. He was wounded himself, in the groin, by flying schrapnel and had to be held down by 4 men holding his limbs,  while the medic removed it....without anesthetic. At the end of the three months, the English had won....they gained FIVE miles.

In our country we save all our hero worship for our World War Two vets and talk very little of the first war, the War to end all wars. I know very little about it. As much research as I have done, I have very few veterans of this war in any of my branches. I don't know why, I have their registration cards, but few ever served.

England was not so lucky....nearly every family lost someone. An entire generation of their young men were lost. Much like our War Between the States and it's effect on men in the South.

I am posting a link to the Times article. I would love it if anyone on here has any stories or pictures of their vets from WWI. These men deserve as much honor and memory as we give any soldier.

www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-britain-funeral7-2009aug07,0,995903.story

I am parking this here so that if someone comes back later and claims my research or pitches a fit...which is GOING to happen....I will have proof of when I did it.

For more years (20) than I want to think I have been trying to prove or disprove a relationship with Francis Marion Tolbert/Talbert. "they" have always said he was the person living with Sarah Tolbert in 1850 and 1860 even tho the 1880 census has his mother "Isabella" of SC living with him in Alabama. He applied for a Civil War pension in Alabama and from all I can tell recieved it, claiming he was wounded in the Battle of Atlanta. His records say he served with the 42nd GA Infantry, Co. E out of Newton County. I have checked every war record I could find both on microfilm and Footnote and Ancestry and you name it. He does not show. Period.

Finally tonite I thought I would give it one more shot and see if I could find someone who might possibly be him....so I pulled the entire 42nd GA ...all companies and went thru over 2,000 names. The only thing I found was a GFM Tarbutton. I thought...what the heck....went to Footnote and pulled the cards and guess what.....Gen. Franics Marion Tarbutton...private. And NO there is no mistake about the name. But just to be sure I checked census records for Georgia in 1860 and 70. In 1860 he is listed as a female...but same name and lives with his mother Isabella in Pickens County. In 1870 he lives near his mother, but with his wife Eliza (correct name for wife) and son William E. (also correct name and age) in Fayette County. I have now checked marriage licenses and there is one in Newton County for francis Marion Tarbutton and Sarah J E Mitchell (correct maiden name) in 1864.

His Civil war record shows he deserted and took the oath. I don't know when he changed his name, but by the time he moved to Alabama he had done so and claimed to have been wounded...there is no evidence of that and I don't know WHY he changed his name. Maybe Alabama's rules for CSA pensions were not as stiff as Georgias. He evidently did not have to have witnesses. And in the records I found he claimed to be with a couple of different companies. So who knows.....

BUT I PROVED he is not Sarah Tolberts son and that is good enuff for me. AND his mother changed her name as well?????

I am happy enuff to explode. Now I just have to put this in a couple of places to back up my research.