Claude Choules RIP

As the nation heads for the ballot boxes today, it might spare a moment of reflection for Claude Stanley Choules. The last surviving combat veteran of the first world war, born 110 years ago in Worcestershire, died earlier this morning at his residence in Australia. It leaves Florence Green — who served in a non-combat role as a mess-waitress — as the only remaining veteran of that great and terrible conflict.

No doubt, our collective memory is weaker for Mr Choules’ death. But our country is stronger, more secure, for his life. An election, by whatever voting system, seems an apt sort of memorial to his passing.