For those of us of a certain age - over 50 probably - the death of the last surviving veteran of the First World War might come as something of a shock. My grandfather served in the "War to end all wars" and growing up during the 1960's, I knew many men who were veterans of that conflict.

Now - they are all gone. The last surviving veteran was Florence Green who joined the Women's RAF 2 months before the war ended in 1918,

USA Today:

Briar House Care Home in Kings Lynn, England, says Green died Saturday.

Born Florence Beatrice Patterson, she joined the Women's Royal Air Force in September 1918 at the age of 17.

She went to work as a waitress in the officers' mess at RAF Marham in eastern England, and was serving there when the war ended in November 1918.

She was officially recognized as a veteran when a researcher found her service record in the National Archives.

The RAF marked her 110th birthday in February 2011 with a cake.

Asked what it was like to be 110, Green said "It's not much different to being 109."

The war's last known combat survivor, Claude Choules, died in Australia last year.

The last surviving veteran of the Civil War died two years after I was born in 1956. Now, as life recedes in the rear view mirror, another milestone of history is marked, noted, and filed away in memory.