- Arthur Halestrap
Arthur Halestrap MBE (
8 September ,1898 –1 April ,2004 ) was one of the last surviving British soldiers of the First World War.Arthur Halestrap was born in
Southampton . He tried to enlist in the British armed forces shortly after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. His request was refused on account of his young age. However, in September 1916, he joined the Royal Engineers Signal Division and was sent toFrance in January 1918.After the First World War, Halestrap worked for Marconi. In the Second World War, he became a member of the Royal Corps of Signals, and in 1942 was seconded to the
Special Operations Executive .After the war, Halestrap worked at first as a member of the Allied Control Commission in Germany, then as a member of the Diplomatic Wireless Service. He retired in 1970.
In 1963, Halestrap was made a
Member of the British Empire . He was awarded the FrenchLégion d'honneur in 1988.He continued to appear on television documentaries into his extremely old age. In 2003, aged 105, he was the only British veteran of the First World War to attend the
Armistice Day Ceremony inYpres , where he rose from his wheelchair and, in a clear and strong voice, recitedLaurence Binyon 's poem "To the Fallen".Arthur Halestrap died in
Kings Sutton , where he had moved to in the 1960s.See also
*
Veterans of the First World War who died in 2004
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