Sir,
I read with great interest and sadness your excellent and full obituary of Harry Patch. Your story of Harry's life and his legacy as the last of those who fought in the Great War can only bring greater understanding and awareness of this conflict to many of your readers who may not appreciate the sheer scale of carnage, heroism, and loss that the war brought.
We are not just mourning Harry, but the generation of courageous men and women on all sides whom he - together with Henry Allingham, Bill Stone and others of their ilk - represented so well through the latter years of his long life.
As a member of The Western Front Association's "Front Forum" remarked, "And now the last has joined the first".
If I can be allowed to point out one error in your obituary, the image you cite as "Patch in uniform in 1917" is certainly not Harry Patch. Harry Patch was much younger in 1917 than the man portrayed, despite the stresses of war. Your image is almost certainly another Harry - Harry Lamin - who was about 40 when the photo was taken. You can see Harry Lamin's photo on the front of Bill Lamin's book, "Letters from the Trenches: A Soldier of the Great War" (please see: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/
Yours
David G Henderson
Here is the link to the online obituary which does not include the incorrect image: Harry Patch Obituary.
Here is the image (on the cover of the book) the DTel included erroneously in their newspaper article:
Footnote: a reply was received acknowledging the error, but I have not seen a retraction/correction. If any reader knows of one, please contact the Web Editor.
