France honours last WWI veteran (BBC) - Democratic Underground

eppur_se_muova

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Mon Mar-17-08 05:08 PM
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France honours last WWI veteran (BBC)

France has given full military honours to its last World War I veteran, Lazare Ponticelli, who died on Wednesday at the age of 110.

President Nicolas Sarkozy led a ceremony in Paris to commemorate him, and eight million other Frenchmen who fought in the conflict.

Mr Sarkozy said it was a national duty to keep their memory alive.

Mr Ponticelli, originally Italian, had lied about his age in order to join the French Foreign Legion in 1914, aged 16.

Understanding and respect

Draped in the colours of the French flag, Mr Ponticelli's coffin was carried into a church at Les Invalides, the golden-domed military hospice where Napoleon is buried.
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more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7301492.stm

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