Henry Allingham has become the world's oldest man at the age of 113, after the death of Tomoji Tanabe, a 113 year old man in Japan. Mr Allingham, the only surviving founding member of the RAF and one of only five living World War I veterans, was born on June 6, 1896 in Clapton, London.
"It's fantastic news. He is very frail now but I'm sure he'll be very pleased to hear it. We are very proud of him."
—Henry Allingham's nephew, Ronald Cator
Mr Allingham has five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, 14 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great grandchild. The majority of his family live in the USA, but his nephew still lives in Britain.
He joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1915, before transferring to the RAF at its inception in 1918. Along with being the sole living survivor of the Battle of Jutland, an honorary member of the Royal Naval Association, a recipient of the Legion d'Honneur and a doctorate in engineering from Southampton Solent University, an honorary freeman of Brighton and Hove and the "oldest scout", Mr Allingham has also published his life story.
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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.