Britain's last surviving WW1 veteran dies, aged 111

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's last surviving veteran of the World War One trenches, Harry Patch, has died at the age of 111, the Ministry of Defence said on Saturday.

Patch, described by his biographer as having a good sense of humor and a "twinkle in his eye," died in a residential home in Somerset, western England.

His passing comes a week after the death of another of the few remaining survivors of the conflict, and the world's oldest man, Henry Allingham, who died aged 113.

The sole British-born survivor of the four year conflict is now seaman Claude Choules, who lives in Australia.

Patch, a former plumber, was conscripted as an 18-year-old, and served in the trenches of Ypres on the Western Front, where he was injured and saw three of his closest friends killed in the battle of Passchendaele.

Prince Charles, who is also the Duke of Cornwall, paid tribute to Patch who served with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.

"Harry always cherished the extraordinary camaraderie that the appalling conditions engendered in the battalion and remained loyal to the end," he told BBC television.

Patch, who served as a machine-gunner for four months in the summer of 1917, did not speak about his war experiences until he turned 100, and in his later years he promoted peace and reconciliation.

"War isn't worth one life," he would say.

His biographer Richard van Emdem said Patch recognized he was a symbol of his generation.

"He was very aware of the fact that he was the very last veteran to have served in the trenches, and I think there was a certain pride in that," he said.

"But he realized...that after him it would be a gone history. There would be nobody else to talk to and so he felt very strongly that he should remember the dead, that he should remember those who suffered on both sides of the line."

In a statement, Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to Patch, saying that "the noblest of all the generations has left us, but they will never be forgotten."

General Sir Richard Dannatt, chief of the General Staff, said Patch had been able to relate the horrors of war to a new generation.

"Self-effacing about his experiences in the trenches he was no less effective in describing the horror they represented when invited to speak to school children about the realities of war.

Patch married Ada, the young girl he had met while convalescing after Passchendaele. After her death in 1976 he remarried, outliving his second wife. His two sons from his first marriage predeceased him.

(Editing by Jon Boyle)