List of last surviving veterans of military insurgencies and wars
This a chronological list of the last surviving veterans of military insurgencies, conflicts and wars around the world. The listed wars span from the 13th century BC to the Korean War.
Classical antiquity
Ramesses II (1303–1213 BC) – Egyptian Pharaoh who, as a young man, fought many battles with the Hittites and Shardana pirates and died aged 90.
These cases, particularly with respect to the ages claimed by the veterans, cannot be verified as it was common in pre-industrialised societies for elders to exaggerate their age.
Henry Jenkins (1501 (Unlikely) – 1670) - English longevity claimant. Claimed to have carried arrows for English archers at Battle of Flodden (1513) when aged 12.[5][6]
Andreas Nielsen (1660?–1782) – Norwegian soldier. Claimed, while unlikely to be the last Scanian War veteran, however he was known to have had a long military career and seen many battles.[7][9]
David McCoy (1790–1895) – United States. Fought in Tecumseh's War. Saw Chief Tecumseh die while fighting in the Battle of the Thames. Served in the War of 1812.[19]
Josiah Allen (1800–1891) – United States. Enlisted at 14 to serve in the Creek War.[20][21]
Ezekiel Blackmarr (1742–1841) – Great Britain. Born in the American colonies. Enlisted in British forces and was their last survivor of the Battle of Havana.[41]
Nicolas Savin (1768 or 1787–1894) – France. Claimed to have enlisted in 2nd Regiment of Hussars in 1798. 1768 figure proclaims he was approximately 126 at time of death. Later served under Napoleon and was awarded the Legion d'Honneur.[46]
Vincent Markiewicz (1795?–1903) – France. Claimed last Polish veteran. Known to have fought for Napoleon.[51] However in 1912 there were three Polish men who claimed to have fought at Borodino, but it is unlikely they were real veterans due to lack of documentation and improbable age ranges from 120 to 133.
Geert Adriaans Boomgaard (1788–1899) – France. Last Dutch veteran and verified veteran. Europe's oldest man at the time of his death. He fought for Napoleon in the 33ème Régiment Léger.[46]
Vasilij Nikolaevich Kochetkov (1785?–1892) – Russia. Enlisted 7 March 1811. Served in Grenadier Lifeguard Regiment at Borodino. Served 66+1⁄2 years until 12 October 1877 when wounded during service in the Russian-Ottoman War.[65]
Emmanuel Louis Cartigny (1791-1892) - France. Last French veteran of the Battle of Trafalgar.[66]
Joseph Sutherland (1789–1890) – United Kingdom. Served in the Royal Navy on HMS Beaulieu and was the last British survivor of Trafalgar.[67]
Hiram Cronk (1800–1905) – United States. Served in a New York Infantry Regiment.[68]
Lewis Tobias Jones (1797–1895) – United Kingdom. Served in the Royal Navy on HMS Medway. Participated in the 1814 capture of USS Syren. Also a Napoleonic Wars veteran.[69]
Edwin Bezar (1838–1936) — British Empire. Hostilities had ceased by the time he arrived; he worked on re-interring the dead and building cemetery walls. Also served in the New Zealand Wars.
Most cases are questionable, though it should be remembered that many Confederate records were destroyed or lost to history. Unlike the U.S. Armed Forces archives, the Confederate Armed Forces records had no official archive system after the war. However, for most of the cases investigated, the ages of the claimants alone were enough to prove their claim was false. Walter Williams was generally acknowledged as the "last Confederate veteran" in 1950s newspapers. However, in September 1959 an exposé by The New York Times revealed that he was in fact born in 1854 in Itawamba County, Mississippi, and not 1842 as claimed. Still, since John B. Salling and all the other claimants were dead, Williams was celebrated as the last Confederate veteran after his death on 20 December 1959.[139]
Salling's own status is disputed. In 1991, William Marvel examined the claims of Salling and several other "last Civil War veterans" for a piece in the Civil War history magazine Blue & Gray. Marvel found census data that indicated Salling was born in 1858, not 1846. Although in 1900 Salling supplied a birthdate of March 1858, he appears to have been born around 1856, still too late to have served in the Confederate Army. The 1860 census lists him as 4 years old, and the 1870 census as 14.[140] William Lundy is listed as 1 year old on the 1860 census, and from 1870 until 1930 he gave census marshals ages that reflected birthdates as early as 1853 and as late as 1860. He did not push his birthdate back to the 1840s until he applied for a Confederate pension from the state of Florida. In the same piece, Marvel confirmed Woolson's claim to be the last surviving Union Army veteran and asserted that Woolson was the last genuine Civil War veteran on either side. However, Marvel did not present research establishing who, among the several other Confederate claims from the 1950s, some of which appear to be genuine, was the real last Confederate veteran.
George Frederick Ives (1881–1993) – British Empire. Last British veteran. Later emigrated to Canada.[183]
James Gordon Williams (1880-1988) – British Empire. Last Australian veteran. Later served in First World War and attempted to enlist for the Second World War but was rejected because he was too old.[184]
Claude Choules (1901–2011) – British Empire. Last combat veteran. Served in the Royal Navy on HMS Revenge. Also last veteran to serve in both World Wars.
Harry Patch (1898–2009) – British Empire. Last soldier to fight in the trenches.
Jiroemon Kimura (1897-2013) – Empire of Japan. Served in the Imperial Japanese Army Telegraph Corps in Tokyo in 1918. Could be considered the last veteran of World War I and last Entente veteran, but is not widely recognized as such.
William Conor Hogan (1898–1995) – Irish Republic. Served in the Irish Volunteers. Also served in the War of Independence and the Civil War.[212][213][214]
Miquel Morera i Darbra (1920–) – Spanish Republic. As of 2024, one of the last known survivors of the Leva del biberón, the youngest generation that went to the front.[284]
^Halbert, Henry Sale; Ball, Timothy Horton (1895). The Creek War of 1813 and 1814. Donohue & Henneberr. p. 142. Retrieved 27 October 2018. josiah allen sam dale.
^Brown, Charles Brockden; Walsh, Robert (1808). The American register, or general repository of history, politics and science, Volume 2. Philadelphia: C & A. Conrad and Company. p. 408.
^Behrens, Johann H. (1840). Lebensgeschichte des 105-jährigen in Wolfenbüttel lebenden Invaliden-Unterofficiers Joh. Heinr. Behrens eines Zeitgenossen und Kriegers Friedrich's des Großen (in German). Wolfenbüttel: Holle. pp. 944–950.
^Hoefer, M.; Ferdinand, Jean Chrétien (1857). Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours avec les renseignements bibliographiques et l'indication des sources à consulter (in French). Paris: Paris, Firmin Didot frères, fils et cie.
^Dalzell, James McCormick; Gray, John (1868). Private Dalzell, his autobiography, poems, and comic war papers, sketch of John Gray, Washington's last soldier, etc. R. Clarke. p. 189.
^Henley, Benjamin James (1911). The art of longevity ... Syracause: New Warner Co. pp. 205–208.
^"Among Our Contemporaries". United Service: A Monthly Review of Military and Naval. Vol. 14. L. R. Hamersly & Company. 1895. p. 564. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
^"Een oude oud-strijder". Leidsche Courant (in Dutch). 4 October 1912. p. 3. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
^"Le Centenaire de Maincy". Le Petit Journal (in French). 28 December 1911. p. 2. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
^"Centenaire décoré". La Croix (in French). 11 February 1912. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
^"Miroir de l'histoire" (in French). No. 313–320. Nouvelle librairie de France. 1979. p. 669. Retrieved 30 March 2018. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
^'George Washington Loudermilk's Ancestors." Aline Loudermilk Jones compiled this massive genealogy 2007. It is online. The 1930 census also gives him a birth date consistent with late 1847. Between 1949 and his death in 1952 three Arkansas newspapers and four nationwide papers and magazines gave his age as being consistent with a birth date of late 1847 and 'The New York Times' was specific. The stories were not syndicated.
^William Joshua Bush shows up as enlisted in Company B Ramah Guards, 14th Georgia Infantry where he served from July 1861 to his discharge that October. His service with the Georgia State Militia from October 1864 to their surrender in late April 1865 was also verified by the Georgia State Pensions in 1936 (see http://cdm.sos. state ga.us 2011/cdm/compoundobject collection/Testapps/id/149449/rec/1) apart from the muster rolls the adjutant-general verified his other documents. These include his soldier's card, a pay slip and his 1861 discharge. Between them these documents bear five different signatures. Bush may have also served in the 66th Georgia between August 1863 and October 1864.
^"ARNOLD MURRAY Confederate Veteran living in 1950." Posted J. Block August 5th 2005. This article mentions the stated 1854/1855 census birthdate – and also the 1920 census birthdate for 1847–48. The censuses of 1910 1930 and 1940 also give 1840s birthdates. Life magazine in the May 30th issue on page 9 gives his age as 101. In The South's Last Boys in Gray Professor J S. Hoar lists twenty-two known enlisted Confederates under eleven. See pp1733-1734.
^TennRebGirl.com 3/4/14 has him in a group photo at a 1913 Confederate reunion. In the 1930 census he affirmed both Civil War service and a birthdate in the later 1840s.
^Townsend's 1861 enlistment in Company B. 27th Louisiana Infantry is recorded on their muster roll in Andrew B. Booth's Military Records of Louisiana Confederate Soldiers and Louisiana Confederate Commands. and also in the LouisianaInfantryDataBase.ancestry.com has six primary source documents in his name; an 1862 sickness furlough, a clothing allocation, a Vicksburg prisoner of war roll where he is listed and his signed parole.
^In Professor Jay S. Hoar's The South's Last Boy's in Gray(page 1700) he states that Kiney lied about his age by three years so as to be old enough to enlist. The 1850 census gives his age as four and his birthplace as Bracken County Kentucky. The first names of his parents in that document match those in a 1991 letter to Professor Hoar written by Kiney's granddaughter.
^This birthdate comes from the February 1991 article "The Great Imposters" by William Marvel and is also in the 1900 and 1920 censuses for a man who spells his name Kinney. This birthdate also appears in a March 1920 marriage record for a William A. Kiney of Indianapolis. Kiney lived in this city.
^Kiney has three primary source records of his enlistments apart from records kept by his family. In Official Records it states that he was in 5th Regiment Kentucky Mounted Infantry. This enlistment is also mentioned in Kentucky Adjutant General's Report – Confederate Volunteers 1861–1865, Vol.1 page 254 entry 80, where Kiney's enlistment is dated on November 1st 1861. Wikipedia's entry on this unit states that they were disbanded in October 1862 and the troops were given a three way choice, discharge, reenlistment or joining the Kentucky Cavalry. Kiney went with the last option as he enlisted in Company l of Diamond's 10th Kentucky Cavalry on 18th November 1863. (This extract is from the book The 10th Kentucky Cavalry CSA by John B. Wells & Jim Pritchard. See Roster of Diamond's 10th Kentucky Cavalry CSA www.potterflats.com10thKyhtml) Professor Hoare's segment on Kiney in The South's Last Boys in Gray reproduces an excerpt of Lloyd B. Walton's article "He's a Man Even at 109" from The Indianapolis Times September 14th 1952. Here Kiney speaks of his Civil War experience, recalling that he was in most of the war and that Shiloh was his toughest fight. His tombstone has the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry inscribed as his unit. They are not known to have had a muster roll.
^This information comes from the 1850 census. Later censuses give a wide range of dates.
^Thomas Evans Riddle is enlisted under his full name in the reproduced muster roll in Terry D. Lowry's History of the 22nd Virginia Infantry. He is also listed as just Thomas Riddle and in the same company in John C. Wayland's Muster Roll of Confederate Soldiers. He apparently transferred regiments for in Official Recordshe appears on the muster roll of Company I 33rd Virginia Infantry. John B. Sheets of that same company kept a diary where Thomas Riddle is mentioned on February 26th 1863.
Against this evidence is the fact that Lowry cautions against believing Riddle and that some of Riddle's descendants warn that due to census information, he could not have served in the Civil War. See their website "Our Family" by David Autry.
^Jakubik, Marian; Kołodziejczyk, Arkadiusz (2002). Żołnierska danina życia od 1657 roku (in Polish). IHAP. p. 158. ISBN978-83-87088-59-0.
^"Den sidste Marine-Veteran død" [The Last Naval Veteran is dead] (PDF). Under Dannebrog (in Danish) (2). The Danish Navy Association: 16. February 1943. Archived from the original(PDF) on 18 May 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
^Personalhistorisk tidsskrift (in Danish). Society for Danish Genealogy and Staff History. 2003. p. 29. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
^"Inventory Search". nam.ac.uk. National Army Museum. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
^Bowd, Gavin (2007). Le dernier communard: Adrien Lejeune (in French). Editions L'Harmattan. ISBN978-2-296-02974-3.
^"Les obsèques de M. Liné" (in French). Le Journal de l'Orne. 10 February 1940. p. 2. Archived from the original on 8 November 2018. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
^"OBSERVANCE OF EMPIRE DAY". The Sydney Morning Herald. 24 May 1947. p. 5. Retrieved 30 October 2018 – via Trove.nla.gov.
^Capodarca, Valido, ed. (1994). "La Guerra Italo-Turca (1911–1912)". Immagini Ed Evoluzione del Corpo Automobilstico (in Italian). Vol. 1. Rivista Militare. p. 58. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
^Strzoda, Ewa (15 April 2008). "Odszedł niezwykły tyszanin"(PDF) (in Polish). Twoje Tychy. p. 4. Archived from the original(PDF) on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
^Miguel A Fanovich; City Hall of David; Ministry of Public Works. Parque al Ultimo Soldado de La Guerra de Coto (Plaque in park) (in Spanish). David, Chiriquí. Parque al Ultimo Soldado de la Guerra de Coto en Memoria "Del Soldado Reinel Cianca". 19 Oct 1901–24 Sep 2002. La Comunidad Agradece la Gesta Heroica al Ultimo Soldado de La Guerra de Coto