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BBC Radio 4 Commissions Gillian Clarke to Commemorate the Passing of the Last Two British-based Survivors of World War I

National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke and Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy have written poems to mark the end of an era. Harry Patch and Henry Allingham, the last surviving British-based men to have fought in World War I, both passed away in July, 2009 aged 111 and 113 respectively.

Commissioned by BBC Radio 4, Gillian's poem appears on their website (click here) alongside an audio recording of the National Poet of Wales reading her work. Carol Ann Duffy's poem and reading is also featured. 

Gillian's poem focuses on Harry Patch, who died a week after Henry Allingham. He fought in the trenches of the notorious 1917 battle of Passchendaele and was the last surviving British soldier. Too old to serve in World War II, Harry, from Combe Down, worked as a firefighter in Bath during the Nazi German air raids. A plumber by trade, he outlived his sons and two wives. 

THE PLUMBER

By Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales

He'd often work crouched on the floor
his tool-bag agape beside him
like a wound.

He'd choose spanner or wrench,
tap for an airlock, blockage, leak,
for water's sound.

Not a man for talk. His work
a translation, his a clean trade
for silent hands.

Sweet water washed away waste,
the mud, the blood, the dirt.
the dead, the drowned,

the outcry, outfall, outrage of war
transformed
to holy ground.