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