General Chat

Canada’s last World War I vet, John Babcock, dies

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/767925--canada-s-last-wwi-vet-john-babcock-dies

2010/02/19 12:44:00
Nicolaas van Rijn Staff Reporter

John Babcock, Canada’s last World War I veteran, has died at the age of 109.

A 16-year-old when he went in search of military glory, Babcock was the last of the 650,000 men and women Canada recruited to serve in the “war to end all wars.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper saluted Babcock Thursday, paying tribute to “Canada’s last living link to the Great War, which in so many ways marked our coming of age as a nation.”

The men and women who served, Harper said, “paid dearly for the freedom that we and our children enjoy every day.

“Today,” he observed, “they’re all gone.”

Gov.-Gen. Michaëlle Jean, head of the Canadian Forces, also paid tribute to Babcock.

“You know how dear the members of the Canadian Forces and our veterans are to my heart,” she said. “And while I am deeply moved and saddened, I am also very honoured to be the Commander-in-Chief and Governor General to pay final tribute to Mr. Babcock.”

At one point Canada had mooted a state funeral for Babcock, but he demurred, saying that because he never saw active service — because of his tender years he spent his war years loading trucks in Halifax and digging ditches in England — he wasn’t worthy of the honour.

Instead, Babcock — who died at home in Spokane, Wash., on Thursday, where he had lived for many years — will be cremated, and his ashes scattered in the Pacific northwest mountains, as happened when his first wife died, years ago.

“I think his grandkids would probably want to do that,” said his wife Dorothy.

“Jack loved the outdoors, he loved to hike.”

Babcock, who was a few months shy of his 110th birthday, had been housebound since a bout of pneumonia last October.

Recent visitors included the choirmaster from his church, Messiah Lutheran, who brought along a keyboard and a violinist for an impromptu concert, since the Babcocks had missed the concerts at Christmas.

And although he left the country of his birth to become an American citizen decades ago, Babcock was recognized by both countries when he died, after having his Canadian citizenship reinstated in 2008.

“Jack loved Canada,” said Dorothy the day that he died. “His heart was there.”

Babcock’s death leaves behind two other known World War 1 vets: American Frank Buckles and British national Claude Choules, who lives in Australia.

Buckles, 108, was just 16 when he lied and signed up as an ambulance driver in the U.K. and France. Following the Armistice, he helped return prisoners of war to Germany.

Choules, 108, is believed to be the last vet to have served in both World Wars. He joined the navy at 14 and became a seaman in the Royal Navy. He was 17 when he saw action on the North Sea. He joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1926 and was in service for 30 years.

What a gentleman. Some would have grabbed at the honour of a state funeral. We all forget what we owe to these men and women who saved our countries from slavery, which it would have been if we had not won. Thanks, Janey, for putting that up.

I think a lot of Canadians would have liked a state funeral. WWI and its vets have iconic status here -- Vimy Ridge was where we "became a nation" and all, the story goes. Active service or no, he was one of them.

When the last Canadian WWI vet still living in Canada died almost exactly 2 years before John Babcock, I posted his birth record (1899) and 1911 census record and the image of his WWI attestation papers at a Cdn political discussion site. They (not genealogy hounds like us!) found it quite interesting.

This is him:

Name: BABCOCK, JOHN HENRY FOSTER
Rank: LCP
Regimental number(s): 835571
Date of Birth: 23/07/1900

and his attestation papers:
http://data2.archives.ca/cef/well1/218225a.gif

and aha, in the 1911 census he was Foster Babcock, aged 10, and living not with his family, but as a servant on a farm. In 1901 he was living with his father James T and mother Anna E and 7 older siblings. All were apparently born in Ontario. (I'd thought of maybe tracing him back to English roots, but that makes it more difficult -- and his father is shown as of German origin, his mother of Irish, so even more so!)


Another article by a well-known Canadian historian:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Death+survivor/2589774/story.html

John Babcock was born in 1900 and survived almost 110 years. At his birth, veterans of Britain's war against Napoleon, the survivors of Waterloo in 1815, were younger than Babcock at his death. No one ought to be surprised, therefore, that Babcock's youth and his minor role in Canada's Great War effort is as hazy in the memory of today's Canadians as the Duke of Wellington's triumph over the French despot was to Babcock's contemporaries. The past matters, yes, but it fades very quickly.

Yet Babcock's brief military career deserves to be remembered. Born just north of Kingston, Ont., on a farm, he tried to enlist in 1915 but was turned down because of his age.

The next year, casualties mounting overseas and volunteers drying up, the recruiting officers took him. He trained at Valcartier, Que., and was on a draft for England when his company officers, again because of his youth, ensured he stayed in Halifax. He finally arrived in England in August 1917, and he was still doing infantry training there when the war ended on Nov. 11, 1918. ...

It is like the closing of the last pages of a very special book.

Bless him, fancy him not thinking himself worthy of a state funeral, he may not have fought but he was still a part of the fighting men. RIP.

The end of an era.

I have stood at the graves of young Canadians in a military cemetery near here and am glad that John Babcock had a longer life.
May he rest in peace.

Gwyn

World war 1 history is all about throwing away lives futilely.

If you were one of hose lives that is what you would want remembered. it is a total contradiction of that to believe the propaganda about it all actually being necessary to save us from something.

Maurice, I entirely agree with you. I censored my own speech on that point here to avoid any ill feeling it might generate.

WWI was a blot on humanity's copybook, a pointless war, one that wasted many lives and lay waste to the environment for decades to come. That is a lesson to be learned, and I'm glad that at least some popular history of WWI, e.g. television documentaries, does tell us about that aspect.

WWII was pretty indisputably a necessary war, made that way by the actions of powers that truly did threaten the way of life we value. WWI, the petty squabbles of the rich and vain, played out with the lives of Babcock's comrades, those who died and those who survived alike.

Not quite on topic, but I recently visited the Marble church, Bodelwydden, North Wales where many Canadian servicemen are buried.
The terrible irony is that they died in 1919 in a flu epedemic whilst at a nearby transit camp.

Happy days

Thanks to Harry and Gwyn -- Canada's fallen are a long way from home and it is very nice to know that they are thought of where they are buried.

My mother's uncle is buried in Etaples, France, and two years ago my brother took her to Paris and they visited the cemetery. Uncle Ross was killed, gased in France (and survived for a time in a US field hospital), only 5 weeks before the Armistice.

Canada's Virtual War Memorial is here:
http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=collections/virtualmem
The records of the war dead are searchable, and copies of their entries in the illuminated Books of Remembrance may be viewed, printed or ordered.

A FEW MILE FROM ME THERES
THE AIRFORCE WAR MEMORIAL EGHAM SURREY
THEY HAVE THE CANADIAN AIRFORCE THERE TOO
http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=Memorials/ww2mem/runnymede

http://www.207squadron.rafinfo.org.uk/othermems_Run.htm

I TOOK PHOTOS OF INSCRIPIONS A FEW YEARS AGO
ON A CANADIAN LOK UP
ITS A BEAUTIFULL MEMORIAL SITE
AND NAMES ARE STIL BEING ADDED

My Great Uncle George was a Canadian WW1 Officer, he married my Great Aunt in 1919 and they went back to Winnipeg. I struggled to find him and his family but made a break through this week.

Died in 1944 and is buried in a military gave in Winnipeg his wife never married again and lived to just shy of her 100th birthday and is now with him.

Managed to find her obituary with lovely references to her family and a kind soul is going to take a photo of their grave for me when the snow melts.

I have researched the family history, not just of my own family, but that of four more remote elderly ancestors who have found the findings fascinating. One of the first questions I ask is "did you have any relatives who died in WW1 or WW2 (or indeed any other war)". I make a point of researching the battles they were involved in, where they died, and where they are commemorated. It's more important than just listing ancestors - these are people who sacrificed their lives for US.

I hope younger researchers include family members who died in more recent wars, not just the World Wars, but the many "local" wars that still rage throughout the world and involve many nations. Even those that don't involve other nations. I have friends in Sri Lanka, affected by the unrest there, and I'm sure many have relatives and friends who were involved in the Irish battles.

We must remember these people for ever.

RIP

may he have everlasting peace

one of my father's brothers, Jack, shot aged 19 in Mamtez woods - buried on the spot with all his comrades, later the grave site was destroyed by a bomb and now his name is on the Thiepval Memorial. It is also on our own village memorial to the fallen and every remembrance day I plant a wooden cross for him to show he is not forgotten - I never knew him but most days I walk in his footsteps and think of him often

Bless him.....

R.I.P.

Thank you to everyone who has read and replied.

I had originally asked GR whether they might pin the post for "a week or so", on February 20. They replied on the 22nd that it had been stickied as requested, and I said thanks.

Its one-month aninversary will be tomorrow, so I think there will be no disrespect if I ask that it now be allowed to become part of history, as Mr Babcock and nearly all of his comrades have now done.

Total respect to those who have & continue to keep us safe. RIP

How many World War I veterans are left - Britain also lost their last one in 2009.

One of the articles about Mr Babcock said:

"Babcock’s death leaves behind two other known World War 1 vets: American Frank Buckles and British national Claude Choules, who lives in Australia."

So you in the UK have an expat WWI veteran still living, just as we in Canada had in Mr. Babcock. ;)


At FreeBMD, someone added a postem in 2009 to the entry for Mr Choules's birth in 1901:

"Born (3 March 1901) Choules is, at age 108, the last seaman from World War I, and the last veteran in the world to have served in both world wars. Choules is also the only remaining British WWI veteran, and the last veteran living in Australia."

Thanks for this Janey.