Britain's oldest man and one of the last Great War heroes, Henry Allingham, dies, aged 113

HIS life spanned three centuries and two world wars - and yesterday Henry Allingham, the world's oldest man, took his final bow.

At the age of 113 years and 42 days the old warrior passed away peacefully at his care home at the end of a life that began in the reign of Queen Victoria.

Henry - a symbol of our wartime past at Remembrance Day parades - was one of only two surviving veterans of the First World War.

And last night tributes poured in for the former Royal Naval Air Service volunteer and the last surviving founding member of the Royal Air Force.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "I had the privilege of meeting Henry many times. He was a tremendous character, one of the last representatives of a generation of tremendous characters."

The Queen said she was "saddened" to hear of his passing, while the Prince of Wales said generations owed him a "huge debt of gratitude".

Wild

And Henry's grandson Christopher, 49, last night revealed how he remembers Henry still riding a MOUNTAIN BIKE when he was ONE HUNDRED.

"He was a remarkable man," he said.

Henry famously attributed his longevity to "cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women - and a good sense of humour".

He became the world's oldest man last month after the death of Japan's Tomoji Tanabe, nine months his senior. He is also the 14th verified oldest man ever.

Born on June 6, 1896, his life would span SIX MONARCHS and 21 PRIME MINISTERS - and he lived through some of the most monumental moments in world history.

His earliest memories included watching soldiers home from the Boer War parading in front of the town hall in Hackney, near his east London home, in 1902.

The same year he recalled being taken to London for the Coronation of King Edward VII.

"I sat on Grandpa's shoulders, waving a flag," he said. "I had only just learned to sing God Save The Queen. Now there was a king and I had to change the words."

His London childhood was a world away from modern-day Britain. "Motor cars had not yet arrived so all transport was horse-drawn, even buses," he wrote in his life story, Kitchener's Last Volunteer,

"Street lighting was provided by gas, with a small army of lamplighters responsible for igniting the mantle." The music of his youth was provided by "barrel organ-grinders on the streets ringing out the hits of the day". And at school Henry - whose father died of tuberculosis when he was just a baby - remembers learning to write in sandboxes before the arrival of new technology . . . slates.

He even saw Buffalo Bill's original Wild West show when it toured Europe.

After leaving school he became a surgical instrument maker at St Bartholomew's Hospital in central London, before training as a coach-builder.

After World War I began, and shortly after his mum died in 1915, he joined the Royal Navy Air Service (RNAS) and was sent to France, maintaining seaplanes. Henry learned to fly his own plane just 12 years after the invention of powered flight.

In 1916 he shadowed the British Grand Fleet in his Sopwith Schneider seaplane during the famous Battle of Jutland.

Grandson Christopher recalled how his amazing war stories kept generations of his family entertained.

Bombs

"He told us how he dropped bombs from a plane out of a milk crate," said Christopher.

"He would hang them over the side and let go when the pilot yelled at him to do it."

Henry was eventually posted to the Western Front where he was shot in the arm. He had two breakdowns and was haunted for the rest of his days by what he witnessed, especially at the third battle of Ypres.

"They would just stand there in two feet of water in mud-filled trenches, waiting to go forward," he told Christopher.

"They knew what was coming. They have never got the admiration and respect they deserved."

After the war Henry married his 22-year-old sweetheart Dorothy Cater and joined car-makers Ford where he worked until his retirement.

By the time the World War II started he was in his forties. But his engineering skills were vital in helping to defuse German naval mines. Henry had two children with Dorothy, five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, 14 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great grandchild.

He outlived his wife by an astonishing 39 years.

Christopher told us: "When I was little I knew he had been in the First World War but he never spoke about it until after he was 100.

"He was still mountain-biking at that age and he played golf until he was 97. After that he couldn't see the ball well enough to continue. He was so independent and that upset him."

Henry's death at St Dunstan's care home in Ovingdean, East Sussex, means 'Last Tommy' Harry Patch, 111, a survivor of the Great War trenches, is now Britain's oldest man. Speaking from Fletcher House care home in Wells, Somerset, Mr Patch said he was "very sad at losing a friend".

In later life, Henry - holder of the British War Medal, Victory Medal and the Legion d'Honneur, the highest French military honour - became the face of the World War I Veterans' Association.

In 2006, he set foot on German soil for the first time in more than 85 years, meeting 109-year-old counterpart Robert Meier.

The wartime foes rose up from their wheelchairs to embrace as friends. Henry's funeral will take place later this month at St Nicholas' Church in Brighton.

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