Claude Choules

Claude Stanley Choules was an English-born military serviceman from Pershore, Worcestershire, who at the time of his death was the oldest combat veteran of the First World War from England, having served with the Royal Navy from 1915 until 1926. After having emigrated to Australia he served with the Royal Australian Navy, from 1926 until 1956, as a Chief Petty Officer and was a naturalised Australian citizen. He was the last surviving military witness to the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow in 1919 and the last surviving veteran to have served in both world wars. At the time of his death, he was the third-oldest verified military veteran in the world and the oldest known living man in Australia. He was the seventh-oldest living man in the world. Choules became the oldest man born in the United Kingdom following the death of Stanley Lucas on 21 June 2010. Choules died at the age of 110 years and 63 days. He had been the oldest British-born man; following his death, that honour went to Reverend Reginald Dean. In December 2011, the landing ship HMAS Choules was named after him, only the second Royal Australian Navy vessel named after a sailor.

3 March 1901

Born on the same birth day (3 March): Andrei Zubarev • Brent Tate • Bryan Cristante • David Faustino • Fraser Gehrig • Georg Cantor • Gustave de Molinari • Hattie Winston • John Montgomery Ward • Johnny Moore (basketball) • Lee Radziwill • Madeleine de Verchères • Martin Procházka • Mike Pender • Park Cho-rong • Ron Chernow • Snowy White

Born in the same month (March 1901): Bhakti Hridaya Bon • Carl Barks • Eisaku Satō • Erich Ollenhauer • Friedrich Günther, Prince of Schwarzburg • Greta Kempton • Grete Hermann • Jo Mielziner • Julian Przyboś • Karl Arnold • Michel Seuphor • Sid Atkinson • Ub Iwerks • Wilbur R. Franks