Henry Allingham

Although he lived to the extraordinary age of 113 years and 42 days, Henry Allingham is not our hero for that feat alone: it was what he had done in his life and the way he lived it that made him a hero. He was a founder member of the RAF and veteran of the Battle of Jutland. But rather than glory in that most terrible of wars he always emphasized the horror of it. Allingham was bright and alert in his extreme old age, and put his longevity down in part to his sense of humour. Add to that his belief that cigarettes, whisky and wild wild women had helped him become the world’s oldest man, and he was doubly a hero for living his life, not surviving it.

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There is no such thing as liberty. You only change one sort of domination for another. All we can do is to choose our master. - D H Lawrence
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Lincoln Cathedral Consecrated - 1092, England and Portugal sign the Treaty of Windsor - 1386, Battle of Auldearn - 1645, Crown jewels stolen by Col Blood - 1671, Enigma Machine Captured - 1941, Channel Islands liberated - 1945
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Henry Allingham

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