This a chronological list of the last surviving veterans of military insurgencies, conflicts and wars around the world. The listed wars span from the 13th century BC to the Korean War.
These cases, particularly with respect to the ages claimed by the veterans, cannot be verified as it was common in pre-industrialised societies for elders to exaggerate their age.
- Vincent Markiewicz (1795?–1903) – France. Claimed last Polish veteran. Known to have fought for Napoleon.[51] However in 1912 there were three Polish men who claimed to have fought at Borodino, but it is unlikely they were real veterans due to lack of documentation and improbable age ranges from 120 to 133.
- Geert Adriaans Boomgaard (1788–1899) – France. Last Dutch veteran and verified veteran. Europe's oldest man at the time of his death. He fought for Napoleon in the 33ème Régiment Léger.[46]
- August Schmidt (1795–1899) – Prussia. Last surviving German and Prussian veteran of the conflict and also last surviving veteran of the battle of Waterloo of all nations participating. He fought in the Battle of Bautzen, Battle of Großbeeren, Battle of Dennewitz, Battle of Leipzig, Battle of Laon, and in the Battle of Waterloo.[52][53]
- Louis Victor Baillot (1793–1898) – France. Last surviving French veteran of the Battle of Waterloo. Also saw action at siege of Hamburg.[54][55]
- Henry James (1799–1898) – United Kingdom. Last Royal Navy veteran. Enlisted in 1812 and served on HMS Pompee. Saw action off Toulon.[56][57]
- Lars Jespersen Kike (1796–1897) – Norway. Last Norwegian veteran of the Swedish-Norwegian War.[58][59]
- Leonard Meesters (1796–1896) – France. Last Belgian veteran. Fought for Napoleon.[46]
- Josephine Mazurkewicz (1794–1896) – France. Last female veteran. Assistant surgeon in Napoleon's army. Later partook in Crimean War.[46]
- Ferdinand Scharnhorst (1797?–1893) – United Kingdom. Last British Army participant of Waterloo. Served in the King's German Legion.[60][61]
- Gaspar Costela Vázquez (1787–1892) – Spain. Last veteran of the Battle of Trafalgar. Served in the navy aboard Spanish ship Santa Ana.[62][63][64]
- Vasilij Nikolaevich Kochetkov (1785?–1892) – Russia. Enlisted 7 March 1811. Served in Grenadier Lifeguard Regiment at Borodino. Served 66+1⁄2 years until 12 October 1877 when wounded during service in the Russian-Ottoman War.[65]
- Emmanuel Louis Cartigny (1791-1892) - France. Last French veteran of the Battle of Trafalgar.[66]
- Joseph Sutherland (1789–1890) – United Kingdom. Served in the Royal Navy on HMS Beaulieu and was the last British survivor of Trafalgar.[67]
- Henry L. Riggs (1812–1911) – United States.[86]
- William Edward Atherdon (1838–1936) — Stockade rebels.[109][110]
Confederacy
More information Name, Claimed birth date ...
Name |
Claimed birth date |
Believed birth date |
Death date |
Status |
Pleasant Crump |
23 December 1847 |
|
31 December 1951 |
Verified |
Felix M. Witkoski |
5 January 1850 |
October 1854 |
3 February 1952 |
Dubious |
Thomas Edwin Ross |
19 July 1850 |
|
27 March 1952 |
Possible |
Richard William Cumpston |
23 May 1841 |
|
5 September 1952 |
Unknown |
William Murphy Loudermilk[124] |
23 October 1847[125] |
April 1851[126] |
18 September 1952 |
Possible |
William Joshua Uncle Josh Bush[127] |
10 July 1845 |
July 1846 |
11 November 1952 |
Verified[128] |
Arnold Murray[129] |
10 June 1846 |
1842/1855[130] |
26 November 1952 |
Possible[131] |
William Daniel Uncle Eli Townsend[127] |
12 April 1846 |
|
22 February 1953 |
Verified[132] |
William Albert Kinney |
10 February 1843/1846[133] |
10 February 1861[134] |
23 June 1953 |
Probable[135] |
Thomas Evans Riddle |
16 April 1846[136] |
1862[137] |
2 April 1954 |
Possible[138] |
Close
Most cases are questionable, though it should be remembered that many Confederate records were destroyed or lost to history. Unlike the U.S. Armed Forces archives, the Confederate Armed Forces records had no official archive system after the war. However, for most of the cases investigated, the ages of the claimants alone were enough to prove their claim was false. Walter Williams was generally acknowledged as the "last Confederate veteran" in 1950s newspapers. However, in September 1959 an exposé by The New York Times revealed that he was in fact born in 1854 in Itawamba County, Mississippi, and not 1842 as claimed. Still, since John B. Salling and all the other claimants were dead, Williams was celebrated as the last Confederate veteran after his death on 20 December 1959.[139]
Salling's own status is disputed. In 1991, William Marvel examined the claims of Salling and several other "last Civil War veterans" for a piece in the Civil War history magazine Blue & Gray. Marvel found census data that indicated Salling was born in 1858, not 1846. Although in 1900 Salling supplied a birthdate of March 1858, he appears to have been born around 1856, still too late to have served in the Confederate Army. The 1860 census lists him as 4 years old, and the 1870 census as 14.[140] William Lundy is listed as 1 year old on the 1860 census, and from 1870 until 1930 he gave census marshals ages that reflected birthdates as early as 1853 and as late as 1860. He did not push his birthdate back to the 1840s until he applied for a Confederate pension from the state of Florida. In the same piece, Marvel confirmed Woolson's claim to be the last surviving Union Army veteran and asserted that Woolson was the last genuine Civil War veteran on either side. However, Marvel did not present research establishing who, among the several other Confederate claims from the 1950s, some of which appear to be genuine, was the real last Confederate veteran.
- Ludwig Herman Klein (1846–1943) – Denmark. Last Naval veteran. Served on the Geiser.[144]
- Ove Henning Jacobsen (1841–1941) – Denmark. Last Army veteran. Fought at Dybbøl.[145]
- Adrien Lejeune (1847–1942) – Communards. Last Communard.[155][46]
- Antonin Desfarges (1851–1941) – Communards. Last député.[46]
- Eugène François Louis Liné (1850–1940) – France.[156]
- Alfred Hawker (1858–1962) – British Empire. Served in the British Army.[159]
- Harry Figg (1855–1953) – British Empire.
- Charles Wallace Warden (c.1854–1953) – British Empire. Transferred to First Foot in 1874.[160]
- Frank Bourne (1854–1945) – British Empire. Last survivor of Rorke's Drift.
- Albert Canning (1861–1960) – British Empire. Served in the 19th Hussars. Also served in the Mahdist War and World War I.[168]
- Edward Hyde Hamilton Gordon (1861–1955) – British Empire. Last officer.[171]
- Nathan E. Cook (1885–1992) – United States. Served in the Navy.
- Walter Pleate (1876–1985) — United States. Served in the Army.[187]
- Altino Bueno da Silva (1903–2014) – Last rebellious child and witness of the slaughter.[207]
- Firmino Rodrigues Martim (1894–c.2000) – Brazilian Army (vaqueanos).[208]
- Antero de Almeida (1906–2014) – National Liberation Alliance.[283]
- José Júnior Barata (1916–2014) – Portuguese Navy rebels.[290][291]
Edward T. Beaumont, J.P. The Beaumonts in History. A.D. 850–1850. Oxford.
"Mowbray and the Moors". Wainwright Walks: Coast to Coast. Episode 5. 7 May 2009. BBC Four.
"Deaths". The American Legion Magazine. Vol. 92, no. 2. American Legion National Headquarters. February 1972. p. 38. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
Chicago Corral of the Westerners (1965). Westerners brand book, Volumes 22–25. Siedlce. p. 24.{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Dunkin, A. J. (1855). "The Haddocks of Wrotham". The Archaeological mine, antiquarian nuggets relating to Kent. London: John Russell Smith. pp. 43–8.
Topelius, Zacharias (1908). Fältskärns berättelse (in Swedish). Vol. 4. Bonnier, Albert. p. 14. Retrieved 26 October 2018.
Brown, Charles Brockden; Walsh, Robert (1808). The American register, or general repository of history, politics and science, Volume 2. Philadelphia: C & A. Conrad and Company. p. 408.
Daughters of the American Revolution (1904). Lineage Book. Vol. 17. Daughters of the American Revolution. p. 301. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
Behrens, Johann H. (1840). Lebensgeschichte des 105-jährigen in Wolfenbüttel lebenden Invaliden-Unterofficiers Joh. Heinr. Behrens eines Zeitgenossen und Kriegers Friedrich's des Großen (in German). Wolfenbüttel: Holle. pp. 944–950.
Hoefer, M.; Ferdinand, Jean Chrétien (1857). Nouvelle biographie générale depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'à nos jours avec les renseignements bibliographiques et l'indication des sources à consulter (in French). Paris: Paris, Firmin Didot frères, fils et cie.
Dalzell, James McCormick; Gray, John (1868). Private Dalzell, his autobiography, poems, and comic war papers, sketch of John Gray, Washington's last soldier, etc. R. Clarke. p. 189.
Mathieu, Frédéric (2008). Napoléon, les derniers témoins (in French). Éditions Sébirot. ISBN 978-2-9532726-0-4.
Lambruso, Albert (1902). Revue Napoléonienne. Vol. 1–2. F. Casanova. pp. 189–190. Retrieved 6 January 2012.
"Commander Henry James". The Westminster Budget. 14 January 1898. p. 30. Retrieved 3 August 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
"En Veteranen" (in Norwegian). Glommendalen. 1 January 1896. p. 2. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
Adkins, Roy (2006). Nelson's Trafalgar: The Battle That Changed the World. Penguin Books.
Fraser, Edward (1906). The enemy at Trafalgar. D. P. Dutton. p. 259. Retrieved 12 June 2019. gaspar costela vasquez trafalgar.
Henley, Benjamin James (1911). The art of longevity ... Syracause: New Warner Co. pp. 205–208.
"Among Our Contemporaries". United Service: A Monthly Review of Military and Naval. Vol. 14. L. R. Hamersly & Company. 1895. p. 564. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
Revue de Provence (in French). Vol. 9. P. Ruat. 1907. p. 26. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
Je sais tout (in French). Vol. 1. Pierre Lafitte Publications. 1905. p. 470. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
"Een oud-strijder". Leidsche Courant (in Dutch). 11 December 1918. p. 4. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
"Miroir de l'histoire" (in French). No. 313–320. Nouvelle librairie de France. 1979. p. 669. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
"Death of the Last Survivor of the Black Hawk War". Vol. 14. Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. 1922.
"The Alamo's Messenger". The Star and Enterprise. 17 January 1906. p. 2. Retrieved 10 October 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
"VETERAN OF MAORI WARS". The Bay of Plenty Times. Vol. 76, no. 14693. 10 June 1948. p. 4. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
"DEATH OF MAORI CHIEF". Vol. 73, no. 22132. The Auckland Star. 11 June 1935. p. 11. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
"Garibaldi Survivor". The Barrier Miner. March 28, 1934. p. 4.
'George Washington Loudermilk's Ancestors." Aline Loudermilk Jones compiled this massive genealogy 2007. It is online. The 1930 census also gives him a birth date consistent with late 1847. Between 1949 and his death in 1952 three Arkansas newspapers and four nationwide papers and magazines gave his age as being consistent with a birth date of late 1847 and 'The New York Times' was specific. The stories were not syndicated.
William Joshua Bush shows up as enlisted in Company B Ramah Guards, 14th Georgia Infantry where he served from July 1861 to his discharge that October. His service with the Georgia State Militia from October 1864 to their surrender in late April 1865 was also verified by the Georgia State Pensions in 1936 (see http://cdm.sos. state ga.us 2011/cdm/compoundobject collection/Testapps/id/149449/rec/1) apart from the muster rolls the adjutant-general verified his other documents. These include his soldier's card, a pay slip and his 1861 discharge. Between them these documents bear five different signatures. Bush may have also served in the 66th Georgia between August 1863 and October 1864.
"ARNOLD MURRAY Confederate Veteran living in 1950." Posted J. Block August 5th 2005. This article mentions the stated 1854/1855 census birthdate – and also the 1920 census birthdate for 1847–48. The censuses of 1910 1930 and 1940 also give 1840s birthdates. Life magazine in the May 30th issue on page 9 gives his age as 101. In The South's Last Boys in Gray Professor J S. Hoar lists twenty-two known enlisted Confederates under eleven. See pp1733-1734.
TennRebGirl.com 3/4/14 has him in a group photo at a 1913 Confederate reunion. In the 1930 census he affirmed both Civil War service and a birthdate in the later 1840s.
Townsend's 1861 enlistment in Company B. 27th Louisiana Infantry is recorded on their muster roll in Andrew B. Booth's Military Records of Louisiana Confederate Soldiers and Louisiana Confederate Commands. and also in the LouisianaInfantryDataBase. ancestry.com has six primary source documents in his name; an 1862 sickness furlough, a clothing allocation, a Vicksburg prisoner of war roll where he is listed and his signed parole.
In Professor Jay S. Hoar's The South's Last Boy's in Gray(page 1700) he states that Kiney lied about his age by three years so as to be old enough to enlist. The 1850 census gives his age as four and his birthplace as Bracken County Kentucky. The first names of his parents in that document match those in a 1991 letter to Professor Hoar written by Kiney's granddaughter.
This birthdate comes from the February 1991 article "The Great Imposters" by William Marvel and is also in the 1900 and 1920 censuses for a man who spells his name Kinney. This birthdate also appears in a March 1920 marriage record for a William A. Kiney of Indianapolis. Kiney lived in this city.
Kiney has three primary source records of his enlistments apart from records kept by his family. In Official Records it states that he was in 5th Regiment Kentucky Mounted Infantry. This enlistment is also mentioned in Kentucky Adjutant General's Report – Confederate Volunteers 1861–1865, Vol.1 page 254 entry 80, where Kiney's enlistment is dated on November 1st 1861. Wikipedia's entry on this unit states that they were disbanded in October 1862 and the troops were given a three way choice, discharge, reenlistment or joining the Kentucky Cavalry. Kiney went with the last option as he enlisted in Company l of Diamond's 10th Kentucky Cavalry on 18th November 1863. (This extract is from the book The 10th Kentucky Cavalry CSA by John B. Wells & Jim Pritchard. See Roster of Diamond's 10th Kentucky Cavalry CSA www.potterflats.com10thKyhtml) Professor Hoare's segment on Kiney in The South's Last Boys in Gray reproduces an excerpt of Lloyd B. Walton's article "He's a Man Even at 109" from The Indianapolis Times September 14th 1952. Here Kiney speaks of his Civil War experience, recalling that he was in most of the war and that Shiloh was his toughest fight. His tombstone has the 2nd Kentucky Cavalry inscribed as his unit. They are not known to have had a muster roll.
This information comes from the 1850 census. Later censuses give a wide range of dates.
Thomas Evans Riddle is enlisted under his full name in the reproduced muster roll in Terry D. Lowry's History of the 22nd Virginia Infantry. He is also listed as just Thomas Riddle and in the same company in John C. Wayland's Muster Roll of Confederate Soldiers. He apparently transferred regiments for in Official Recordshe appears on the muster roll of Company I 33rd Virginia Infantry. John B. Sheets of that same company kept a diary where Thomas Riddle is mentioned on February 26th 1863.
Against this evidence is the fact that Lowry cautions against believing Riddle and that some of Riddle's descendants warn that due to census information, he could not have served in the Civil War. See their website "Our Family" by David Autry.
Marvel, William (1991). The great imposters. Vol. VIII. Columbus: Blue and Gray. pp. 32–33.
"légion d'honneur". Journal officiel de la République française. 12 January 1937. p. 508. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
Jakubik, Marian; Kołodziejczyk, Arkadiusz (2002). Żołnierska danina życia od 1657 roku (in Polish). IHAP. p. 158. ISBN 978-83-87088-59-0.
"Den sidste Marine-Veteran død" [The Last Naval Veteran is dead] (PDF). Under Dannebrog (in Danish) (2). The Danish Navy Association: 16. February 1943. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 May 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2019.
Kernodle, R; Beard, Belle; Wilson, Nera; Wilson, Albert (September 1991). "Centenarians: The New Generation". Contemporary Sociology. 20 (5). American Sociological Association: 28. doi:10.2307/2072275. JSTOR 2072275.
Bowd, Gavin (2007). Le dernier communard: Adrien Lejeune (in French). Editions L'Harmattan. ISBN 978-2-296-02974-3.
"Last Survivor". South African Digest. No. 14. Department of Information. 1967. p. 3.
"Has Drawn An Army Pension For 72 Years". Mercury & Herald. 12 March 1954. p. 4.
Title page of Memoirs, vol. 1, 1969.
"Khartoum Veteran". Coventry Evening Telegraph. 9 November 1953. p. 3.
"Fought Against Riel". The Brandon Sun. March 8, 1966. p. 9. Retrieved August 11, 2017 – via Newspapers.com.
Beruvides, Esteban M. (1990). Cuba: Anuario Histórico (in Spanish). AD Ventures International. p. 28. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
Antonio, Rubens (24 October 2011). ""Canudos"..." (in Portuguese). Cangaço na Bahia. Retrieved 21 August 2021.
Davies, David Twiston (1996). Canada from afar: the Daily telegraph book of Canadian obituaries. Dundurn Group. pp. 1–3.
Heaton, Colin; Lewis, Anne-Marie (2014). Four War Boer: The Century and Life of Pieter Arnoldus Krueler. Casemate.
Texas Monthly (November 1988). "Rafael Lorenzana" (magazine). 16 (11). Emmis Communications: 125. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
Capodarca, Valido, ed. (1994). "La Guerra Italo-Turca (1911–1912)". Immagini Ed Evoluzione del Corpo Automobilstico (in Italian). Vol. 1. Rivista Militare. p. 58. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
Van Emden, Richard (6 December 2013). "John 'Jack' Rogers". Britain's Last Tommies. WordPress.com. Retrieved 8 May 2016.
"佐々木安一さん106歳" (in Japanese). Sunday Yamaguchi. 15 September 2004. Archived from the original on 6 December 2018. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
"Births & Deaths". The Vancouver Sun. 1 April 2003. p. 67. Retrieved 15 December 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
Dariusz, Roszak (20 March 2007). "Jan Rzepa". Gazeta Wyborcza (in Polish). Retrieved 3 November 2018.
"Kronika Wielkopolski" (magazine) (in Polish) (113–116). Państwowe Wydawn. Naukowe. 2005: 203. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
"Čikagos Aide Rašoma" (in Lithuanian). Association of Local Government Municipalities of Lithuania. 22 July 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2018.
Arthur, Max (2014). Last Post: The Final Word From Our First World War Soldiers. Orion Publishing Group.
Miguel A Fanovich; City Hall of David; Ministry of Public Works. Parque al Ultimo Soldado de La Guerra de Coto (Plaque in park) (in Spanish). David, Chiriquí. Parque al Ultimo Soldado de la Guerra de Coto en Memoria "Del Soldado Reinel Cianca". 19 Oct 1901–24 Sep 2002. La Comunidad Agradece la Gesta Heroica al Ultimo Soldado de La Guerra de Coto
China Radio Network (10 February 2015). Zhiqiang, Li (ed.). "淞沪抗战老兵六代同堂过110岁生日" (in Chinese). Xinhua News Agency. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
"Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2021-07-21.