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The Last Tommy Was a Woman: Florence Green and the End of the Great War Era
On Feb 4, 2012, Florence Green, the last surviving WWI veteran and WRAF member, died at 110. Her passing severed the final living link to the Great War, closing a monumental chapter of history and leaving behind a world shaped by a conflict now passed entirely from memory to record.
The Final Connection Severed
On February 4, 2012, a quiet yet profoundly significant historical chapter came to a close. With the passing of 110-year-old Florence Green, the world lost its last known surviving veteran of the First World War. Her death didn't just mark the end of a long and full life; it severed the final living, breathing connection to a global conflict that reshaped the 20th century. With her went the last firsthand memories of the Great War, an event that now passes completely from living memory into the silent pages of history.
A Service Unseen
Florence Beatrice Patterson was born in London on February 19, 1901. In September 1918, at just 17 years old, she joined the newly-formed Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF). While the war had only two months left before the Armistice, her service made her a veteran. She wasn't on the front lines, but her contribution was vital. As a mess steward at RAF Marham and the former RAF Narborough airfield in Norfolk, she served meals to officers, playing her part in the vast machinery of the war effort. It was a role shared by thousands of women who stepped into new responsibilities, fundamentally changing the social fabric and proving their capabilities in ways that had been previously unimaginable.
For decades, her veteran status went unrecognized. The world's attention was on the last combat soldiers, men like Britain's Harry Patch, America's Frank Buckles, and the final combat veteran, Claude Choules, who passed away in May 2011. It wasn't until 2010 that researchers officially confirmed Florence Green as a veteran, placing her as the final survivor of that immense global conflict. Her daughter, May, described her mother's reaction to the belated recognition with characteristic humility.
She is a very modest person and she is not one to talk about her service. When I told her she was the last one she just said: 'I'm not that interesting'.
This quiet modesty encapsulated a generation that did its duty without fanfare, never considering their contributions to be extraordinary.
From Living Memory to History
The passing of the last veteran of any major conflict is a moment of deep reflection. It is the point where we can no longer ask, "What was it like?" and receive a reply from a living voice. The stories, the sounds, the smells, and the personal feelings of an era become entirely dependent on records, letters, and film. The Great War, a conflict of unprecedented industrial slaughter that claimed over 20 million lives, is no longer a part of our world's living experience. It is now a historical artifact, something to be studied and interpreted, but never again personally recounted.
Florence Green's legacy is a poignant reminder that history is not just made by soldiers in trenches. It is made by everyone who serves, from nurses and munitions factory workers to officers' mess stewards. That the very last veteran was a woman in the WRAF offers a fitting, if unexpected, bookend to the story of a war that not only redrew maps but also redefined societal roles. Her quiet life in King's Lynn, far from the battlefields, was the final repository for the memory of an entire generation that faced the abyss and changed the world forever.