A mourner reads the order of service for Harry Patch

By Lisa Rowley in Somerset

Thousands of people lined the streets today to pay tribute to the Last Tommy, former Shropshire World War One veteran Harry Patch.

Mr Patch, 111, was honoured at a funeral service at Wells Cathedral, in Somerset. The retired plumber’s cortege left the Fletcher House care home in Somerset, where he had lived for 13 years, amid emotional scenes.

• Obituary – click here

• Video tribute – click here

His carers and fellow residents formed a guard of honour outside the home to watch the hearse make its way to the cathedral.

Members of the Royal British Legion bearing standards formed a second guard outside the cathedral as bells sounded.

Before the service Andrew Larpent, of the Somerset Care Group, said: “Harry declined the offer of a state funeral, as he said it wasn’t really his way.  But I think he would have been very touched that so many Somerset people have turned out to pay their respects to him.

“He used his fame to share a message of peace and reconciliation and it is right that this message is reflected in the service.”

Hundreds of people surrounded the cathedral undaunted by the grey skies to pay tribute to the veteran, who used to live in Hadley and who died last month.

Among them was Andy Tams, who took along his six-year-old son Tolly, from Staffordshire. He said: “Harry Patch represented the end of an era. It is part of the UK that is now lost.”  Following the death of Henry Allingham at 113 years old on July 18, Mr Patch was briefly the oldest man in Europe, aged 111 at the time of his death on July 25.

He was the last British Army veteran of the First World War and the last to have served in the trenches.

Following the deaths of Mr Allingham and also William Stone in January, Mr Patch was also the last British veteran of the First World War living in the UK.  Alongside Mr Patch’s family and friends, the funeral was attended by the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duchess of Gloucester, Veterans Minister Kevan Jones and General Sir Richard Dannatt.

The coffin was carried by soldiers of 1st Battalion The Rifles, with two soldiers of each of the armed forces of Belgium, France and Germany acting as pall-bearers.

Mr Patch’s great-nephew, David Tucker, carried his medals and decorations while personal tributes came from Jim Ross, a close friend of Mr Patch’s for many years. Representatives from the Belgian, French and German governments all took part in the service to show Mr Patch’s respect for soldiers on all sides of the war.

At the funeral, Veterans Minister Mr Jones sa- id: “Today marks the passing of a generation, and of a man who dedicated his final years to spreading the message of peace and reconciliation.”

• Plans have been unveiled for a plaque to remember Mr Patch in Holy Trinity Church, in Hadley, where he married his wife Ada in 1919. Councillor Pat Smart, Hadley and Leegomery Parish Council chairman, said: “We have got to be sure nobody forgets the sacrifice made by those people to enable us to enjoy the freedoms we now have.”