WHAT'S NEXT: INNOVATIONS IN NEWSPAPERS

I went to Somerset to attend the funeral for Harry Patch, Europe’s oldest man.

Britain’s last fighting Tommy, Harry Patch, was laid to rest yesterday.

Watch here this unique historical moment.

Some of Mr Patch’s admirers slept overnight on Cathedral Green so they could be first in line for the public tickets for today’s service.

Others were relying on a large screen erected to relay proceedings live from inside the building.

Born on June 17, 1898, his first job was as an apprentice plumber.

He was conscripted at 18 and fought in the dramatic battle of Passchendaele in Belgium, where 500,000 men were killed.

1.400 people had tickets for the cathedral service but many more were outside along the streets paying respect to the body of the 111-year-old veteran.

For more than 80 years he would not talk about his war time experiences, refusing to attend regimental reunions and avoiding any war films which appeared on the television.

Mr Patch’s great-nephew David Tucker, 65, who carried his medals and decorations, said:

“One of Harry’s greatest moments was when he met the sole surviving German soldier – they actually met on the battlefield and shook hands. It was very important that after all those years we could finally close the wounds of that world war. After all the pain Harry went through, he found a way of expressing it for the millions who didn’t come back.”

Members of the Great War Society attended Harry Patch’s funeral.

After prayers by Peter Maurice, Bishop of Taunton, Mr Patch’s coffin, draped in Union Flag and bearing a poppy-shaped wreath made from 100 red roses, was carried out of the cathedral by the young pallbearers, followed by six young men of equal youth from the armed services of France, Belgium and Germany.

And there,  another friend of Mr Patch’s, Nick Fear, recited the Ode of Remembrance.

As his coffin emerged again a bell tolled 111 times, one for each year of a great life, and two buglers sounded the Last Post.

The local paper, the Western Daily Press, devoted today seven very well done pages to the the last WWI British veteran.

What a day, what a hero!

(Pictures by EPA/Andy Rain)