The world's oldest man has died at the age of 113
Brown condolences on the death of the oldest inhabitant of the planetRIA News
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed his condolences over the death of the oldest inhabitant of the planet, one of the three surviving British veterans of the First World War, Briton Henry Allingham, the Prime minister said in a statement.
Ellingham, who was born in 1896, died on Saturday morning at the age of 113 at the St. Dunstan Nursing Home in Ovingdean on the south coast of Great Britain.
"I've had the good fortune to meet Henry many times. He was an outstanding person, one of the last representatives of a generation of outstanding people," Brown said.
"My thoughts are with his family, who are mourning his passing, but are happy to remember his life," Brown added.
According to the British newspaper Telegraph, Ellingham jokingly called the secret of his longevity "cigarettes, whiskey and wild, wild women."
As the oldest inhabitant of the planet, Ellingham got into the Guinness Book of Records after June 19, when it became known about the death of the previous holder of this title, Japanese Tomoji Tanabe, who also died at the age of 113.
In 1915, Ellingham joined the ranks of the Royal Air Force of Great Britain, and a year later he took part in the largest naval battle of the First World War – the battle near the Danish peninsula of Jutland, the last surviving eyewitness and participant of which he was.
During the Second World War, Ellingham served in the bomb disposal brigade of magnetic mines.
The World War I veteran was named the oldest resident of the United Kingdom in 2007 at the age of 110 years and 227 days.
Ellingham, who served in naval aviation during the First World War, has recently become one of the main characters of the local press. He is the holder of a number of honorary titles of British universities, the holder of two degrees of the French Legion of Honor and many British awards.
At the beginning of June this year, in honor of the 113th birthday of the oldest Briton, the leadership of the Royal Navy of the country organized a big celebration on board the military frigate HMS President, now moored on the Thames near Tower Bridge.
The funeral of Ellingham, who has already become a national hero, will be held at St. Nicholas Church in Brighton at the end of July.
His wife Dorothy, with whom he lived for more than half a century, died in 1970. Ellingham is survived by five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, 14 great-great-grandchildren and one great-great-great-grandson.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru20.07.2009