WWI veteran releases autobiography

Britain's last surviving WWI veteran, who went on to fight for the Australian navy
in WWII, has notched another accolade - as a first-time author at the age of 108.

Claude Choules, who is also the last known Great War veteran living in Australia,
enlisted with Britain's Royal Navy at just 15 in 1916 and later served with HMS
Revenge.
Now living in a Perth retirement village, his autobiography, The Last of the Last,
was released nationally on November 2.
His publisher, Peter Bridge, told AAP the book followed the war veteran from his
idyllic childhood in England, growing up near the River Avon in Worcestershire,
before moving to Australia in 1926.
"Claude's book is unique, in not only the fact that he's probably the oldest
first-time published author in the world, but also his military service in both
world wars is very interesting," Mr Bridge said.
"His job was to blow up the Fremantle port if the Japanese invaded, which they were
thought to be very close to at one stage."
Mr Choules' son, Adrian Choules, spoke to the ABC on Remembrance Day, saying his
father's active military service in both world wars was remarkable.
"My understanding is that there are four people, a Turk, a Canadian, a United States
person and my father.
"(They are) the four people left who actually served during the first world war.
"My father was the only one of those four who actually saw combat."
In his home state of WA, hundreds of people, including WA Governor Ken Michael,
gathered at a Remembrance Day ceremony in Kings Park.
Four RAAF aircraft - from the flying training school at Pearce air force base - flew
over those who had gathered in Kings Park to mark the day.
Born in Wyre Piddle, England, in March 1901, Mr Choules served with Britain's Royal
Navy after joining the HMS Impregnable in 1916.
He joined the battleship HMS Revenge in 1917 and witnessed the surrender of the
German Fleet near Firth of Forth, Scotland, in 1918.
Mr Choules travelled to Australia with the Royal Navy in 1926 to work as an
instructor at Flinders Naval Depot before transferring to the Royal Australian Navy
(RAN).
He was a commissioning crew member of the HMAS Canberra and served with her until
1931 when he discharged from the RAN before rejoining as a torpedo and
anti-submarine instructor in 1932.
As the acting torpedo officer at Fremantle in WWII, Mr Choules disposed of the first
German mine to wash up on Australian soil during WWII, near Esperance, on WA's south
coast.
He was also tasked with destroying harbour and oil storage tanks at the Fremantle
port in case of a Japanese invasion.
Mr Choules remained in the RAN after WWII, spending his final working years at the
Naval Dockyard Police and joining the crayfishing industry, at Safety Bay, south of
Perth.
According to news sources, American Frank Buckles, 108, and Canadian John Babcock,
109, who both live in the United States are alive but neither saw active combat.