Here is a paradox. Harry Patch was against war. Yet the reason that, in his almost uniquely extreme old age, he commanded so much respect is that he fought in one.
For much of his life, Mr Patch was a plumber. We all need plumbers. But it was not his plumbing that this week got thousands out in the streets of Wells, and members of the Royal family, Government ministers, generals and representatives of the former enemy paying tribute inside the cathedral. It was his soldiering.
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