We must mark a sad occasion today. Women’s Royal Air Force member Florence Green has passed away. She was the absolute last World War I veteran in the world. Read on for her story.
“Mrs. Green passed away in her sleep at a care home in Norfolk just two weeks before her 111th birthday,” according to The Telegraph. “The great-grandmother signed up to the Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF) 93 years ago in September 1918, when she was aged just 17.”
She was so cool, she even had her own Wikipedia page.
“During the First World War she worked at Narborough Airfield and RAF Marham, Norfolk, as an Officer’s Mess steward,” they write. “Mrs. Green spent her war days working ‘all hours’ serving officers breakfast, lunch and dinner and would often spend time wandering the base simply ‘admiring the pilots.'”
Green and British-born sailor Claude Choules were the last two surviving veterans until his death last year, also at the age of 110. Her husband Walter Green passed away back in 1970. The two had been married for 50 years at that point. She’s survived by a 90-year-old daughter, May, who she’d been living with the past few years as well as a younger daughter June Evetts, 76, a son Bob, 86, as well as four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
She became one of 10 supercentenarians (all women) in the UK on her 110th birthday. Before her passing, she remarked on her time in service.
”I enjoyed my time in the WRAF. There were plenty of people at the airfields where I worked and they were all very good company. I would work every hour God sent but I had dozens of friends on the base and we had a great deal of fun in our spare time,” she said. “In many ways I had the time of my life. I met dozens of pilots and would go on dates. I had the opportunity to go up in one of the planes but I was scared of flying. It was a lovely experience and I’m very proud.”
(via Neatorama)
Published: Feb 7, 2012 02:45 pm