UK's last WWI veteran Florence Green turns 110
- From: NewsCore
- February 20, 2011
THE world's last surviving female veteran of World War I has celebrated her 110th birthday, joining a small club of supercentenarians.
Not only is Florence Green, from Norfolk, the only female veteran left who served in the 1914-18 conflict, she is one of only three WWI veterans left across the world, and the only one of those living in England, The Independent reports.
In 1918, 17-year-old Florence signed up for the newly founded Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF).
The WRAF's original mission was to provide female mechanics, and allow men to fight in the war, but with a massive enrollment, many women ended up in other volunteer positions.
She never saw the front line and instead worked as a waitress at an air force base in Marham, Norfolk.
However, her WRAF service qualifies her for veteran status and she is one of two surviving Britons from the conflict. The other, Royal Navy veteran Claude Stanley Choules, who turns 110 in March, lives in Australia.
The only other World War I veteran still living is American Frank Buckles, an ambulance driver who resides in West Virginia. He turned 110 earlier this month.
Florence has outlived her husband by 41 years and lives with her 89-year-old daughter, one of her three children.
When asked what it felt like to turn 110, she said, "It's not much different to being 109."
Read more about the UK's 110-year-old war veteran Florence Green at The Independent.
