Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the condolence motion for Mr Claude Choules and to pass on my sympathy and support to his extensive family. Along with many others, I was saddened to hear of the passing of Mr Choules on 4 May 2011, aged 110—the last of our World War I combat veterans. Mr Choules's passing brings to a significant end Australia's and the world's last living connection to World War I and closes another chapter in world history. I note that Mr Choules served in the British Royal Navy during World War I, having joined at the age of 14, and I understand that he witnessed the scuttling of the German fleet in 1919. He also served with the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. So he has service in both World War I and World War II.

It is extraordinary to think that 70 million people served in World War I, with millions of these paying the ultimate sacrifice for their country. More than 750,000 Australians served during World War I, with 155,000 wounded and 64,000 losing their lives.

Reading about Mr Choules's life, I was reminded of my own family. Some of the history of Mr Choules's life is contained in his book which is titled The Last of the Last. I understand that Mr Choules started writing this book when he was in his 80s, with the support of his daughters, and that the book was subsequently published in 2009, when Mr Choules was 108. My great-grandfather, William Glanville, and Mr Choules both served in the British Royal Navy in World War I. My grandfather, William Henry Glanville, and Mr Choules both served in the Royal Australian Navy in World War II. My father, William Weir, also served in World War II but with the RAAF. Fortunately, they, like Mr Choules, returned home safely to their relatives and friends. Our veterans fought for our country so that Australia and the world could be free from oppression and violence. Mr Choules's 20 years of dedication to the defence of this nation is a shining reflection of the loyalty and selflessness demonstrated and embraced by Australia's veterans.

The McPherson electorate has an extensive veteran community, with the Burleigh Heads, Currumbin Palm Beach, Mudgeeraba and Tweed Heads and Coolangatta RSL sub-branches providing support to the McPherson veteran community. I know that they share my sorrow in Mr Choules's passing. Mr Choules can be assured that he has left behind a community that embraces our ANZACs. This has been demonstrated at recent Anzac Day services across the country. Attendance at our Gold Coast Anzac services is continuing to increase year by year. I understand that in excess of 10,000 people attended the dawn service conducted by the Currumbin Palm Beach RSL sub-branch, which was held at Elephant Rock on Currumbin Beach. That service was also telecast live throughout Australia.

Mr Choules is survived not only by his extensive family but also by a grateful nation, who will forever remember the sacrifices diggers like him made for Australia during the world wars. As a federal member of parliament, as the daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of World War I and World War II veterans, and as an Australian, I am tremendously proud of the legacy Mr Choules and other veterans like him have left. Lest we forget.

Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I join with other members in marking the death and honouring the life of Claude Stanley Choules, who was the last living combat veteran from World War I. In doing so, I endorse the remarks of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition and those of my parliamentary colleagues. If there is a theme to all our contributions it is, understandably, that of remembrance. It is a fact of life that time marches ever forward and it is a part of the human condition that successive generations constitute the links we have between the present day and our history. Claude Choules was the last living contact we had with the combat experience of World War I. On hearing of Claude's death, my thoughts turned to my grandfather, who served in the Middle East in World War One and in the Pacific in World War II. Jesse Lilburn 'Pat' Parke fudged his age upwards to be involved in the First World War, and downwards for the Second World War. He died of health problems related to his war service, before I was born. I am sure it is the case for many Australians that the passing of Claude Choules resonates strongly with their memory of relatives who were directly involved in World War I.

As long as Claude lived, a human connection remained to that time, a human connection remained to the history that also involved our grandfathers and great-uncles. Now that thread has been severed and we will have to make a greater effort as time passes so that we continue to remember, so that children born this week, whose lives never intersected with Claude Choules, will nevertheless come to learn and understand the horrors of war and the incredible suffering and sacrifices made by Australians in the cause of peace.

In this context I note that we will shortly mark the centenary of Anzac, which I am sure will provide a significant opportunity for us to remember as a nation and to strengthen our capacity to remember. I am aware, for example, of an effort underway to have added to the war memorial in Fremantle a set of plaques that record the more than 800 local men who lost their lives in World War I. It is a project that I wholeheartedly support.

I would like to note that Claude Choules has a special connection to Fremantle, for there was a time when Fremantle was both his home and to some extent his responsibility. Claude settled in Fremantle between the wars, and in World War II as a naval chief petty officer was apparently charged with the responsibility of rigging vessels in Fremantle harbour so that they could be blown up in the case of invasion. Thankfully, it never came to that. Of course, it never came to that because of the efforts of service personnel like Claude Choules, because of the military and civilian fortitude of tens of millions across the allied nations.

After the Second World War, Claude became a cray fisherman, which was and continues to be a typical Fremantle profession. At 110, Claude Choules was the oldest Australian man and the seventh-oldest man alive, which is incredible. His life spanned a remarkable period of history, including the two most awful conflicts the human race has inflicted on itself. Claude's wife of more than 75 years, Ethel, a nurse, who he met on the ship out to Australia, died when she was 98. Claude cared for her until the end, sleeping on a canvas sheet on the floor by her bed. He is survived by three children, 11 grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren. Our best wishes and condolences go out to all of them, and I will be honoured to convey these sentiments to Claude's family at his funeral service, which is to be held next Friday, 20 May, at St Johns Anglican Church in Fremantle.

On hearing the news of Claude's death, I called and spoke with Claude's daughter, Anne Pow, who lives in Palmyra in my electorate. Anne made the point to me that Claude hated war and the glorification of war. With all his personal experience, Claude Choules believed that war was pointless; and, as much as he was and is a symbol of remembrance, we should not whitewash the fact that he personally did not like to dwell on the wars. As I understand it, he only marched in Anzac parades when he was ordered to.

Anne wanted to impress on me the fact that her dad was a remarkably happy man. I think that is a quality that comes through even in the photographs that accompany the newspaper stories of his death. I like to think that one of the secrets of his long life was his happiness. He was also clearly a loving and good humoured man and a man devoted to his family. Those are the qualities I believe he would have most wanted to be remembered for.

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the motion by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. The member for Fremantle and I have something in common: Claude was living in the electorate of Swan when he passed away but he also, as the member for Fremantle said, spent time living in the Fremantle electorate.

Claude was the last surviving combat male from World War I. He lived in WA in the electorate of Swan at the Gracewood hostel in Salter Point. For those who do not know Salter Point, it is a peaceful area along the Swan River, and I am sure it would have been a great and peaceful place for him to spend his last days. I know the staff of Gracewood will be missing him, as will his family and all those who knew him.

In my small way, on behalf of the people of the electorate of Swan, I wish to pass on my condolences to Claude's family. Claude did not like war and he saw it as his job so he did what he had to do. He was typical of many veterans who do not glorify war, but at the same time he was a symbol of the men and women of the Allies who fought to preserve our way of life and the many freedoms and rights we enjoy as a society. He along with his fellow Allied force members, whether they be men or women, were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for their countries. We have recently held Anzac ceremonies all over Australia and other parts of the world to recognise the fallen members of Claude's troop and Allied forces in conflicts around the world, but particularly the ones Australian and New Zealand forces fought in. People like Claude are symbols and reminders to us of these valiant men and women.

I have taken some details from the Sydney Morning Herald article by Gerry Carman, which gives us an insight into the man who was referred to as 'the last of the last':

As a centenarian, he retained a sense of humour, insisting a laugh was good for the senses and the soul. Asked the secret of his longevity, he responded: ''Don't die.''

He was also the oldest man living in Australia when he died.

Towards the end, a degenerative eye disorder, exacerbated by a fall, meant Choules relied on touch. But overall, he appeared to be in remarkably good health.

His daughter, Anne Pow, attributed his long life to his overall fitness, healthy lifestyle and a happy, contented disposition that allowed him to eat and sleep well to the end.

He didn't own a car until he was 50 and rode a bicycle everywhere. And, his wife, Ethel, a children's nurse, ensured the family always had a healthy, balanced diet long before modern health fads took hold.

Claude Stanley Choules, who held dual British and Australian nationality, was born on March 3, 1901, at Wyre Piddle, Pershore, in Worcestershire, one of five children of Madelin and Henry, a haberdasher and gambler. His mother abandoned the family when he was a young child - for many years he thought she had died - and his older brothers were sent to different family homes while his father raised him and his sisters, Phyllis and Gwen. This would later shape his make-up as a considerate, conscientious and attentive father, polite to all.

Choules dropped out of school at 14 and fibbed about his age to join the navy in 1915. The previous year he had tried to join the army as a bugle boy when he learnt that his brothers, Douglas and Leslie, were serving in the British Army. Both had fought at Gallipoli before going on to fight on the Western Front in France, where Douglas was gassed and died a year later and Leslie won the Military Medal for bravery.

After initial training on HMS Impregnable, at one time a 140-gun square-rigged wooden battleship, Choules served in the North Sea on HMS Revenge, flagship of the Royal Navy's first battle squadron.

He witnessed two historic events at the end of the Great War: the surrender of the Imperial German Navy at the Firth of Forth off Scotland's east coast, on November 21, 1918, 10 days after the armistice; and he was present at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands on June 21, 1919, when German admiral Ludwig von Reuter ordered his interned fleet to be scuttled. Preventive action limited the scuttling to 52 of the 74 ships.

Between 1920 and 1923, Choules served in the Mediterranean before being seconded with 11 other Royal Navy personnel to come to Australia in 1926 on loan to the RAN as an instructor at Flinders Naval Depot on the Mornington Peninsula.

On the way to Australia, on the passenger ship SS Diogenes, Choules met Ethel Wildgoose, a Scot on her way to Melbourne, and they married not long after.

Choules asked for a permanent transfer to the RAN. He returned to Britain for courses to qualify as a chief torpedo and anti-submarine instructor and he was also on duty for the construction of the RAN's heavy cruisers, Australia and Canberra. He was part of the commissioning crew of HMAS Canberra, in which he served until 1931.

Choules took his discharge from the RAN that year but remained in the reserve; he rejoined the RAN the following year as a torpedo and anti-submarine instructor, with the rank of chief petty officer. During World War II, he served as the RAN's senior demolition expert in Western Australia. Early in the war, he disposed of the first German mine to wash up on Australia's shores, near Esperance in Western Australia. During the dark days of 1942, he set explosives to blow up oil tanks and placed depth charges in ships unable to leave Fremantle Harbour in anticipation of a Japanese landing.

Had the Japanese invaded, he would also have had to ride a bicycle about 500 kilometres south to Albany to blow up harbour facilities there.

He remained in the RAN after the war and transferred to the Naval Dockyard Police, which enabled him to stay in the service until 1956, five years longer than regulations allowed for RAN ratings, who had to retire at 50.

But Choules was not done with the sea. He bought a crayfish boat and spent 10 years fishing with Ethel. He also shot rabbits and culled kangaroos - until he saw the film Bambi.

Despite his military record, Choules became a pacifist. He was known to have disagreed with the celebration of Australia's most important war memorial holiday, Anzac Day, and refused to march in annual commemoration parades.

An excellent ballroom dancer, he had pumps made for his whirls across the dance floor doing the foxtrot, which he taught his daughters and grandchildren. He also loved to play the mouth organ; not surprisingly, his favourite tunes were seas shanties, including What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor?

Ethel Choules died in 2006, aged 98, and Claude spent his last years at the Gracewood Hostel at Salter Point in Perth.

His death follows that of American Frank Buckles, who died in February, also aged 110, and who, until then, had been the oldest surviving veteran of World War I. He'd been an ambulance driver near the Western Front. … Claude Choules is survived by his children, Daphne, Anne and Adrian, 13 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

Claude Choules was a symbol of those before our time and our generation who gave to their country—did not ask what they could take from their country but were prepared to give to their country. A lot of us should remember those qualities and those character traits as we go about our daily lives and see what we can give to this country in memory of people like Claude Choules, to celebrate his contribution to Britain and to Australia.

Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to express my condolences on the passing of Mr Claude Choules. On Thursday, 5 May 2011 Mr Claude Choules, the last-known veteran to have served in World War I, passed away. While he spent his later life here in Australia and fought for Australia in World War II, it is Mr Choules's connection as a British serviceman to the First World War that I wish to reflect on here today.

As a teacher, I have had the opportunity to teach and learn about the war, so often called the Great War. So extreme the loss of life, so long the conflict, so broad the impact, it was a war that our forebears hoped would be the war to end all wars. Claude Choules was there in the fray as a serviceman in the British Royal Navy. He lived a life, as did his peers, impacted by the realities of that long and tragic conflict. But, while Mr Choules's passing marks the end of that historical period and our connection with World War I, it is important in my view to honour his passing by placing on the record in this place that he and those who served alongside him will not be forgotten.

Recently, students from my electorate of Robertson undertook an excursion to Villers-Bretonneux and assisted with the Anzac Day service there. They were supported and encouraged in this excursion by Roger Macey, who continues the tradition established by Mr Paul Salmon and his fellow history staff, and obviously very much encouraged by their school principal. I understand that all present at the service were described on the day as 'pilgrims', reinforcing the sense and depth of esteem held for those who served and died, or survived, on Flanders Fields.

I offer my condolences and those of the people of the seat of Robertson to the Choules family at this time of great personal loss. I also offer them some comfort at this time in the observation of two young Aussies, Emily Rayner and George Margin, the school captains of Brisbane Water Secondary College, who were at Villers-Bretonneux this Anzac Day. They both reported back to their school and gave a speech to the gathered assembly. Emily Rayner had the following to say:

As young Australians it became incredibly emotional for us to experience first hand the physical and spiritual presence they left behind … those graves are ultimately a profound and visual statement depicting the sacrifice that each and every one of them gave for us.'

George Margin, the boy school captain, responded to an epitaph that he read on the grave of an Australian soldier by the name of Philip Ball who died on the Western Front. The epitaph simply said, 'I fought and died in the Great War; did I die in vain?' George's response is:

Philip Ball and all the thousands of other Australians, I say to you: You did not die in vain. We made this pilgrimage to honour your sacrifice. We will never forget.

Claude Choules, the last of the last, we will remember you. We honour your service and your life. We will never forget you.

Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is appropriate today that we reflect as a House on the passing away of Claude Choules, who died at the age of 110 in Perth in a nursing home. It is appropriate that we take this opportunity to pause at this juncture to reflect not just on his personal iconic qualities that have been so ably outlined by my colleagues here today but also on the fact that he was the last known combat veteran of World War I, the war that was to end all wars. When you reflect upon the life of Claude Choules, here was a man who signed up at the age of just 14 years of age in the Royal Navy and who served on famous ships, like the HMAS Impregnable and the HMAS Revenge; who was a commissioning crewmember of the HMAS Canberra before World War II and who served with her until 1931; who served in two world wars, the most famous conflicts of human history; and who was a person who rejected war as a means to an end, who never liked it and never commemorated it or regarded it as something that he would tolerate.

We are here today, because of the service and sacrifice of so many people like Claude, that great generation of Australians who volunteered to put themselves in harms way. I want to take a moment to reflect upon this conflict and Claude's contribution and the contributions of those Australians who did so much for us in World War I, because it is very important. Out of a population of just five million—a tiny component of the entire world—416,809 men enlisted in World War I. That goes to show what a great nation Australia truly is: in the cause of freedom, 416,809 people out of five million enlisted voluntarily to fight. That is the mark of the strength of a free society like Australia.

The citizen soldier is something that I believe in quite passionately. Every free nation, indeed, needs a citizen soldiery. When you look at the great Australian military tradition that has emerged since our nation's formation, the citizen soldier—the ordinary person who steps forward to volunteer their life for their family, for their friends and for their country—is the hallmark of greatness. There is no other nation or system that can replicate that quality of a person putting themselves into harm's way by their own choice. They do not ask what their country can do for them; they ask what they can do for their country. Every free society that you look at has this. If you go back to Rome, republican Rome had the citizen soldier, and they conquered the known world. In Elizabethan England, privateers fought the Spanish and the closed markets. Minutemen in Boston in the United States of America were citizens who within minutes would take up a musket and fight the oppression of invaders who they regarded as taking over their country and their land.

In Australia, we had those 416,809 men out of five million—men like Sir John Monash, who at the beginning of the First World War was a citizen, a successful engineer. At the end, he commanded the Australian corps; he was Field Marshall Sir John Monash. He was laden with honours. He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George and Knight Commander of the Bath. He was mentioned in despatches five times. He was decorated by the French, Belgian and American governments. And he was an ordinary Australian, like those 416,809 men. They were ordinary Australians, not soldiers. They stepped up to save our country from oppression. It reminds me of that great story of the Australian who came back from World War I to be congratulated on being a great soldier. That unknown soldier gave an immortal retort: 'I am not a soldier; I am a farmer.'

That is why I am such a supporter of the citizen soldier and the reserve forces in our country today. That great Australian military tradition that has been passed down by men like Claude Choules through his life, his service and his belief that he should do something to make our country a better place. The life of Mr Choules spanned an incredible era of technological and other change. Yet that tradition of military service—that tradition of people doing something for other people, of stepping up to the plate and joining our Defence forces—carries forward. The service and sacrifice of those in the Australian Defence forces has a connection and a bond to those who have served our nation over a span of more than a century—indeed, the span of the life of Claude Choules. He would have been happy to see it. His generation nurtured and preserved a way of life that we embrace today. It is my hope in supporting this motion of the House today—and I commend the House for bringing forward such a motion—that we also let future generations be so privileged as to live under the same freedom and values of Australia through the dedication of the young people who are in uniform all around the world deployed on our behalf today. I want to thank Mr Choules and those 416,000 brave men of that great generation of people who stepped up to fight for the cause of freedom in our world. I endorse this motion before the House today.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The passing of Claude Choules is truly the end of an era. Mr Choules is The Last of the Lastthe title of his autobiography. A significant chapter in world history ends with his passing. He was the last known living combat veteran of the Great War of 1914 to 1918 when he died in Perth on 5 May, aged 110. His death follows that of American Frank Buckles, who died in February, also aged 110, and who until then had been the oldest surviving veteran of World War I. Claude Choules was also the last surviving sailor of World War I and served in both the Royal Navy and the Royal Australian Navy. In fact, he was only two days younger than the RAN, which was established on 1 March 1901.

In 1914, after hearing that his two older brothers, Douglas and Leslie, were serving in the British Army, Mr Choules tried to join as a bugle boy. However, a year later, at the age of 14, he fibbed about his age and joined the Royal Navy and served in the North Sea on the HMS Revenge, the flagship of the Royal Navy's first battle squadron.

Claude Choules witnessed two historic events at the end of the Great War: the surrender of the imperial German navy at the Firth of Forth off Scotland's east coast on 21 November 1918, 10 days after the Armistice; and he was present at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands on 21 June 1919 when German Admiral Ludwig von Reuter ordered his interned fleet to be scuttled. During World War II, Claude Choules was acting torpedo officer of the HMAS Fremantle and served in the RAN until 1956.

The knowledge and memories this gentleman possessed are beyond our comprehension; the changes and momentous occasions in world history he saw, experienced and felt is staggering. With his passing an historic curtain is sadly drawn. Although he scorned the glorification of war, Claude Choules was a fine example of the men and women who served and who serve so bravely for us—the price of freedom being eternal vigilance. He is an example of the servicemen who fight for peace and stability for Australia and who ensure that democracy prevails.

As the member for Riverina, whose hometown of Wagga Wagga is also home to the soldier, with the important strategic and training bases of both the Royal Australian Air Force and Royal Australian Navy, the death of a serviceman has always been felt deeply no matter the age. The selfless sacrifice and courageous commitment made by men such as Claude Choules ensures the spirit which exists within every person who wears a military uniform continues to burn brightly. I offer my sincere condolences to his very extensive family. Mr Claude Stanley Choules—lest we forget.