The year was 1896. The first modern Olympics were hosted by Athens, Puccini’s La Boheme premiered in Turin and Queen Victoria became the longest reigning monarch in British history. And in a corner of northeast London, an ironmonger’s wife gave birth to a boy, Henry.
One hundred and twelve years later, Henry Allingham is in rude health as the oldest man in Europe. Tomorrow the World War I veteran will celebrate his birthday by watching a fly-past of vintage aircraft, including a Hurricane and a Spitfire.
It is thought that the only man in the world who is older is Tomoji Tanabe of Japan, who turns 113 in September. Tanabe says that abstaining from alcohol has kept him healthy. Allingham, with a twinkle in his eye, attributes his own longevity to “cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women.”
He was at the greatest naval clash of World War I, the Battle of Jutland, and in 1917 was posted to France to service and rescue aircraft that crashed behind the trenches at Ypres and the Somme. He fell into a shell hole “full of legs, arms, ears, rotten flesh and rats” in no man’s land and has never forgotten the stench of death.
Allingham attends remembrance events at home and abroad, gives interviews to the media, visits schools to talk to children at least 100 years his junior and has just completed an autobiography, to be published in October.
On his birthday, he will be the guest of honor at a VIP lunch at the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) College Cranwell, near Sleaford, Lincolnshire. The sole surviving founder member of the RAF will witness a fly-past by the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and a parachute jump by the RAF Falcons display team. Forty Cranwell Primary School pupils will present him with a birthday cake. The great-great-great-grandfather will also be joined by eight family members from the US.
Yet for more than 80 years Allingham never spoke about the war. He was finally persuaded by Dennis Goodwin who, as founder of the World War I Veterans’ Association, organized reunions and trips for old soldiers.
“He’d answer the door and not let me in,” recalled Goodwin, his carer and the ghost writer of his memoirs.
“He’d say: ‘I want to forget the war, I don’t want to talk about it.’”
“But I sent him letters about the reunions and gradually he let me in and we got talking. Eventually I got him out of his flat in Eastbourne [on England’s south coast] and took him to the pier. He met other veterans and started to think: ‘I could do this.’ It was a very slow process — he’s essentially a very private man.”
Goodwin, 81, said: “We’re going to Trooping the Color [Queen Elizabeth’s annual birthday parade] on 14 June. Henry said: ‘I remember my mum took me there when I was seven. I don’t know how she got a front-row seat.’ That would have been 1903. If you were looking for a role model, not many people would say Henry Allingham, but the mere fact he’s got to 112 and is still enjoying life is itself unique.”
Allingham remains in good health and lives in Brighton.
Max Arthur, author of the World War I oral history Last Post, said: “He’s a very dignified, very gentle man. He was so surprised to survive the First World War that he saw whatever came next as a reward.”
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