Australia’s last WWI veteran dies
WWI Australian veteran John “Jack” Ross died in his sleep.
June 3, 2009
News sources are reporting the death of Australia’s last veteran of WWI.
John "Jack" Ross, who was also Australia's oldest man at the age of 110, died in his sleep early this morning at a nursing home in Bendigo in the state of Victoria.
Ross was 18 when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in January 1918. The war ended nine months later before he could be posted overseas. He was discharged that same year on Christmas Eve. He served Australia again in WWII as a member of the Volunteer Defense Corps.
Ross was the last of 417,000 Australians who served in WWI. As a civilian, he was a railroad worker before retiring in 1964.
Here in the United States, the oldest living WWI veteran is Frank Woodruff Buckles of Charlestown, W.Va. The Missouri native turned 108 in February.
