Hayibo.com - World War 1 veteran dies of wounds

World War 1 veteran dies of wounds

LONDON. Private Stanley Cabbage, one of the last surviving veterans of World War One, has died of wounds sustained during the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Private Cabbage had been clinging to life for 92 years but suffered a setback this morning when field surgeons tried to turn him over for a sponge bath and accidentally dislodged his head. He was 110.

Private Cabbage's only surviving friend, Billy Thug, 111, of the Blessed Virgin Frailcare Centre in Soho, said that Cabbage had always been "a lovely, reliable, loyal little dog, but given to scratching himself raw when the fleas were biting".

"I am very sad to hear that he has passed on," said Thug.

"He was only with us for six or seven years, and in that time he spread so much love.

"And a bit of mange, but that’s to be expected."

It is understood that Mr Thug is suffering from acute dementia.

Private Cabbage has no next of kin. His fiancée, Miss Gladys Mangle of Bromford, is thought to have remained at his bedside from 1917 until 1925, at which point she told doctors that she was "nipping out for a fag" and never returned.

She was last seen in Rio in 1936, making a living as a bare-knuckle prizefighter, although there is some evidence that she left this line of work after telling her manager that she was "nipping out for a fag" before returning to England to work as a bare-knuckle midwife.

Lawyers disposing of his remains told reporters this morning that Private Cabbage had written a short will, in which he left his worldly belongings to his commanding officer, Captain Digby Rugby-Blighty of the 2nd Royal Welsh-Canadian Dismounted Foot Fusiliers.

These included a bedpan, a pocket watch and a subscription to Life magazine for 1965.

According to the lawyers Captain Rugby-Blighty died in 1918 after trying to fire a can of condensed milk at retreating German infantry. The bequeathed possessions will therefore be given to a charity shop.

They said that Private Cabbage had also written a short note in which he said he had enjoyed a full life and did not want anyone to mourn him.

However Cabbage said that if there was on thing he could do differently it would be "to not get shot in France in 1916 and spend 92 in a hospital bed".