“I want everyone to know,’’ he said during an interview in November. “They died for us.’’
Only a handful of World War I veterans remain of the estimated 68 million mobilized. There are no French veterans left alive; the last living American-born veteran is Frank Woodruff Buckles of Charles Town, W.Va.
“It’s the end of an era - a very special and unique generation,’’ said Allingham’s longtime friend, Dennis Goodwin, who confirmed the death. “The British people owe them a great deal of gratitude.’’
Born June 6, 1896, Allingham left school at 15 and was working in a car factory in East London when the war broke out in 1914.
He spent the war’s first months refitting trucks for military use, but when his mother died in June 1915, he decided to join after seeing a plane circling a reservoir in Essex.
Only a dozen years after the Wright brothers first put up their plane, Allingham and other airmen set out from England on motorized kites made with wood, linen, and wire. They piled on clothes and smeared their faces in Vaseline, whale oil, or engine grease to block the cold.
“To be honest, all the planes were so flimsy and unpredictable - as well as incapable of carrying large fuel loads - at the start of the war that both British and German pilots would immediately turn back rather than face each other in the skies if they did not enjoy height supremacy,’’ Allingham would later write.
As a mechanic, Allingham’s job was to maintain the rickety craft. He also flew as an observer on a biplane. At first, his weaponry consisted of a standard issue Lee Enfield .303 rifle - sometimes two. Parachutes weren’t issued. He fought in the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of World War I. He served on the Western Front.
After the war, he worked at the Ford motor factory and raised two children with his wife, Dorothy. She died in 1970, and when his daughter Jean died in 2001, friends say he waited to die, too.
That’s when he met Goodwin, a lay inspector for nursing homes, who realized that veterans of Allingham’s generation were not getting the care they needed to address the trauma they had experienced.
He encouraged Allingham to share his experiences and the veteran soon began talking to reporters and school groups, the connection to a lost generation. He found himself leading military parades. He was made an Officer of France’s Legion of Honor.
He met Queen Elizabeth II and wrote his autobiography with Goodwin, “Kitchener’s Last Volunteer,’’ a reference to Britain’s minister for war who rallied men to the cause.
Allingham remained outspoken until his death.
“I think we need to make people aware that a few men gave all they had to give so that you could have a better world to live in,’’ he said. “We have to pray it never happens again.’’
