Memorial service honors Canada’s last WWI veteran

Published 10:28 pm Sunday, February 28, 2010

SPOKANE — John Babcock, Canada’s last soldier from World War I who died last week at the age of 109, was remembered at a memorial service as a symbol of his 650,000 countrymen who volunteered to serve in the Great War.

Babcock died Thursday in Spokane, where he had lived since 1932. On Saturday, family, friends and some of Canada’s top dignitaries gathered at Spokane’s Messiah Lutheran Church to honor his life.

“He captured the spirit of adventure,” said Gen. Walter Natynczyk, chief of the defense staff for Canadian Forces and the country’s top soldier.

“Jack was a part of that generation who went forward with great courage,” Natynczyk said.

During World War I, just 11 million people lived in Canada. Of those who served, more than 60,000 died.

“John Babcock was Canada’s last living link to the Great War, which in so many ways marked our coming of age as a nation,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement last week.

“Today they are all gone,” Harper said. “Canada mourns the passing of the generation that asserted our independence on the world stage and established our international reputation as an unwavering champion of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”

Natynczyk was joined Saturday by Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Canada’s minister of veterans affairs and minister of state, The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported. Also attending were members of the Canadian army and the Royal Canadian Regiment, the unit in which Babcock served.

Blackburn presented Babcock’s wife, Dorothy Babcock, with the Canadian flag that was flying over the Peace Tower at the Canadian parliament in Ottawa, Ontario, the day he died. She also received a flag from the regiment, and a regiment bagpiper played “Amazing Grace.”

“We have to remember that Mr. Babcock was only 15 years old when he enrolled and decided to defend and value our country,” Blackburn said.

John Henry Foster Babcock was born July 23, 1900, on a farm near Kingston, Ontario, one of 11 children. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Regiment, lying about his age. Kept in Britain with nearly 1,300 other underage soldiers, he trained in anticipation of facing enemy fire, but the war ended before he could set foot in France.

After the war, Babcock moved to the United States, where he served in the U.S. Army from 1921-24. After moving to Spokane, he operated a heating business for 26 years. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen when he was 46 years old, and at 95 earned his high school diploma.

Babcock attributed his longevity to the physical training he received from serving in two armies. He didn’t drink much and stopped smoking years ago.

At his memorial service, his grandson, Paul Babcock, described his grandfather’s life as “an adventure novel from the get-go,” one that “didn’t let up.”

Babcock was married to his first wife, Elsie, for 45 years. His second wife, Dorothy, was a nurse who helped care for Elsie before she died.

Babcock and his second wife were married for more than 30 years.

Survivors include his son and daughter, two stepsons, 16 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.

Frank Woodruff Buckles, 109, of West Virginia, is now the only surviving North American World War I veteran.

Information from The Spokesman-Review, www.spokesman.com.