Memorial honour for Harry Patch

Tuesday 15th September 2009, 1:22PM BST.

A national memorial service is to be held at Westminster Abbey to mark the passing of a generation after the death of former Shropshire World War One veteran Harry Patch.

Members of the Royal Family will be attending the service, which is to be held on November 11 at 11am, and broadcast live on BBC1.

Obituary — Click here

Ten places have been allocated for Shropshire but those to receive tickets will be selected without a ballot taking place.

Mr Patch, who used to live in Shropshire, died on July 25 at the age of 111.

A funeral service was held at Wells Cathedral when hundreds attended. He was the last surviving British soldier to have fought in the World War One trenches.

After the death of Henry Allingham, aged 113, on July 18, Mr Patch was briefly the oldest man in Europe.

Mr Patch used to live in Church Stretton and what is now Telford and married his first wife Ada in Hadley in 1919.

He is to be remembered at the Holy Trinity Church where he got married with a special plaque and today a bar was named in Mr Patch’s honour at the Swan Hotel in Wells where he used to drink.