The Last Survivors

Steve Humphries has spent the last 25 years talking to people who lived through the first World War. Here, he describes his conversations with six members of an extraordinary generation

“I had lost three good mates. It was like losing part of my life”

HARRY PATCH 1898–2009

The author and producer Richard van Emden and I embarked on our mission to film the stories of the last survivors of the First World War – for a BBC Two series on masculinity and war – more than 20 years ago. Back then, we had no idea that one of our earliest interviewees, Harry Patch, would turn out to be the last surviving Tommy of the war.

A quiet, unassuming man whom we discovered in a residential home in Wells, Somerset, Harry had never spoken publicly or privately about his experiences before. Telling his story on camera for the first time was a very emotional experience for him. He’d served four months in the Ypres Salient in 1917 before being wounded by shellfire and evacuated back to England. It was only when he was in hospital that he was told what had happened to the rest of his Lewis gun team.

“We were five of us in the team and we lost three of us. I shall never forget the three I lost. That upsets me more than anything. Well, they were simply blown to pieces; they never found anything of them.

They took the whole blast of the shell. I went down with the blast. September 22nd 1917 – that is my remembrance day, not Armistice Day. I shall never forget that.

I had lost three good mates. My reaction was terrible; it was like losing part of my life. I’d taken an absolute liking to the men in the team – you could say almost love. I mean, those boys were with you night and day: you shared everything with them and you talked about everything. You were one of them, we belonged to each other, if you understand.”