I read this today…the end of an era…
I sometimes wonder if these ‘last veteran dies’ articles are accurate.
A lot of men in many nations came back from both world wars, and from lesser conflicts, and severed all connections with and acknowledgement of their war service.
I suspect that there might be a few WWI veterans still alive in that category who are not known to officialdom.
A good point…i wonder who actually keeps count?
I expect it’s based on official records which can be connected to people, and or people who come to official notice in some way.
A lot of people who don’t want to be noticed officially wouldn’t have found it hard to drop off official records over nearly a century, especially when those records weren’t always kept immaculately in the age of paper records which could easily be lost.
My father had three army numbers between the late 1930s and mid-1960s, courtesy of the Australian Army losing his first and second records of service.
Given the millions of men who served in various nations which weren’t any better organised for maintaining records, a lot of men could have slipped through the cracks if they didn’t want to acknowledge their service.
Then there is the problem of tracing them in civilian life, which would have created a lot more cracks to slip through.
I had two numbers in three and a half years…thanx for your thoughts.
I don’t know whether that makes South Africa more or less efficient than Australia. 
Well when it comes to rugby and cricket…theirs a debate for you RS.:D:D;)
Yeah, it’s very possible that a less lucid veteran—whose lost his mind to a scourge like Alzheimers—may indeed still linger somewhere…
Mr. Buckles, who joined the U.S. Army in 1917 at the age of 16, lying about his age for recruits, died of natural causes at his home near Charles Town, West Virginia on Sunday