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Europe's oldest man Henry knows how to party
Friday, 11am: WHEN YOU have enjoyed 112 birthdays you can't help but become something of a connoisseur and so today, Friday, Europe's oldest man Henry Allingham knows that he is getting the best of parties.
In celebration of his 112th birthday the Royal Air Force is hosting a two day party that started yesterday with a trip to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at RAF Coningsby and dinner at the Petwood Hotel in Woodhall and culminates today in lunch at RAF College Cranwell, with a BBMF flypast.
The RAF Falcons parachute display team will do a parachute jump to deliver a birthday card and local children will present him with a cake.
Joining Mr Allingham - the oldest surviving veteran of World War 1, the only one to have served with flying corps, and the second oldest man in the World - are members of his family from America.
When asked on the eve of his birthday by Rasen Mail editor Jason Hippisley what he thought of the RAF - meaning the flying capabilities and their strength in defending the realm - his immediate response was to praise their hospitality.
"I like them," he said. "They are always good hosts and as far as I'm concerned I'd rather be with the RAF than anybody. I am always more than satisfied with what they do for me, but although I have been looking forwards to this for sometime, I do not deserve any of it."
"I reckon the Royal Air Force are marvellous and if I was to go through it all again I would seriously think about a career with them," said Mr Allingham in a characteristically sharp, sprightly and spirited - but well considered - response.
Henry, a great, great, great grandfather now living in Brighton, was a flight mechanic, initially with the Royal Naval Air Services throughout the First World War, serving at Jutland, and he was a founding member of the RAF when it was formed in 1918 through an amalgamation of the RNAS with the Royal Flying Corps.
He joined up in August 1915, and insists that the influence of his naval and flying corps commrades in WWI, although so often overlooked by more vivid remembrance of the land based assaults and trench warfare, was pivotal in the eventual victory.
He trained at Great Yarmouth and served in France, Belgium and Germany through to April 1919, and notably in the Battle of Jutland, the largest sea battle in British naval history off Denmark in May 1916. He also fought at the Somme and Ypres.
"Once we got on top we were away. Air supremacy was vital in that war just as it was in the second, maybe more so," he said.
On D Day 64 years ago he turned 48 and had already played his part in World War 2, having been called out on Christmas Day 1939 whilst in a reserved occupation as an engineer, to work out how to defuse a new German bomb and was away for months afterwards. He retired in 1961 and has been drawing a pension for 47 years.
But he is far from idle, with at least 40 to 50 engagements each year, half of them military based, and big plans for this years 90th anniversary of Armistice.
Twenty two years ago when the WW1 Veterans Association was formed by Dennis Goodwin, now Henry's chief minder, driver, eyes and ears, there were 4,000 veterans from that campaign - from 5.2m who were at arms on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918. There are now only three survivors - Henry from the air force, Harry Patch, 109, from Wells who was in the Army, and Bill Stone, 107, from Wokingham who was in the Navy.
There is much debate of how to best commemorate the service of men and women in the Great War at the time of the death of the last of the veterans. Mr Goodwin said it was a clear desire for that man to be laid to rest peacefully with a form of state memorial event a few months later, symbolically featuring an empty gun carriage and a memorial tablet in a similar fashion to the tomb of the unknown soldier.
No-one knows Henry as well as Dennis. "He is a remarkable man," he said. "The frailer his bones become, the more dominant his spirits."
The last word has to go to Henry. Just hours away from his latest landmark birthday, he told the Mail, "I enjoy my time now such as it is and make the most of it. My method is to stick a feather in your hat and be happy."
Here is a list of milestones in the life of Britain's oldest man, Henry Allingham.
Henry Allingham, Born June 6, 1896 in Clapton, east London.
1898: His father dies from tuberculosis. Henry is 18-months-old.
1915: Following the death of his mother at the age of 42, he enlists with the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) as a skilled mechanic and bodybuilder.
1916: Posted to RNAS at Great Yarmouth and joined HMT Kingfisher which was involved in the greatest naval battle of the Great War, the Battle of Jutland.
1917: He is posted to France to support the Royal Flying Corps, and joined No 12 Squadron of the RNAS to service and rescue aircraft that crashed behind the trenches.
1919: After leaving the RNAS, Henry marries 22-year-old Dorothy Cater in Chingford, Essex. He goes on to secure various engineering jobs and works his way up to a senior position with car manufacturer Ford.
1960: Retires to Eastbourne, East Sussex, with his wife who dies 10 years later. He had two daughters who died in their eighties.
2003: Receives France's highest military honour, the Legion D'Honneur, at a ceremony at Eastbourne Town Hall.
2004: Aged 108, he lays a wreath and leads the service in the Lord's Prayer at the 90th anniversary of the First World War at the Cenotaph.
2007: Spends his 111th birthday on board HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship for a flypast.
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Weather for Market Rasen
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
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Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
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