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OLDEST WAR VETERAN LAYS DOWN WREATH
BRITAIN'S oldest war veteran has paid tribute to his fallen colleagues at the first permanent memorial to British air personnel who served on the Western Front.
Henry Allingham (Pictured), of Chesterfield Road, travelled to Northern France to lay a wreath by the monument at St Omer airfield.
The veteran set foot on French soil for the first time since 1918 and stood silently as he read the inscription on the memorial.
As Mr Allingham, 108, walked slowly back to his seat supported by a friend, he was given a standing ovation by the gathered crowd.
His homage came after Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge and Lieutenant-General Jean Patrick Gaviard of the French Air Force officially unveiled the 60,000 monument.
A Spitfire staged a flypast over the airfield to mark the event.
An RAF band played the Last Post, Reveille, and the national anthems of France and Britain.
A second fly-past staged by four Jaguars from Numbers 16 and 41 Squadrons and four aircraft from the French Air Force ended the solemn ceremony.
Local dignitaries, associated RAF squadrons and relatives of air crew who served on the Western Front were among those at the event, held nearly 90 years after the first aircraft arrived in St-Omer.
Mr Allingham, who is one of 22 surviving British Great War veterans, said afterwards, 'I felt very, very emotional but I felt proud that I was able to represent the true meaning of what the memorial was erected for.
'I hope those who did pay the supreme sacrifice would understand how I felt.'
After joining the RNAS in 1915 Mr Allingham served at Jutland and on the Western Front.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge, Commander-in-Chief Headquarters Strike Command, said after the ceremony, 'It is very important that we salute our veterans and someone as central as Henry Allingham, a First World War aviator and a real symbol of what the RAF is all about.
'He is a symbol of our history and it is first-hand experience of what life was like on this site all those years ago.'
Standing some five metres high and two metres wide the monument is the first permanent memorial to British personnel, ground and air crew from the Royal Flying Corps; the Royal Naval Air Service; the Royal Air Force and the Australian Flying Corps who served in France and Belgium during the First World War.
The monument is made from stone quarried in France and bronze cast in Nottinghamshire.It stands on land offered in perpetuity by the French authorities and was paid for through privately raised funds.
The St-Omer site served as a major airfield, logistics base and repair depot throughout the war.
The RAF's present-day Numbers 6 and 19 Squadrons were first formed at the base.
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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