Claude choules biography

Last living combat veteran of the First World War

For the warship, see HMAS Choules (L100).

Claude Stanley Choules (;^[2] 3 March 1901 – 5 May 2011) was a British-born military serviceman from Pershore, Worcestershire, who at the time of his death was the oldest combat veteran of the First World War from England, having served with the Royal Navy from 1915 until 1926.

After having emigrated to Australia he served with the Royal Australian Navy, from 1926 until 1956, as a chief petty officer and was a naturalised Australian citizen.^[3][4][5] He was the last surviving military witness to the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow in 1919 and the last surviving veteran to have served in both world wars.

At the time of his death, he was the third-oldest verified military veteran in the world and the oldest known living man in Australia.^[6] He was the seventh-oldest living man in the world. Choules became t