Song farewells Last Tommy

LONDON - As a plumber's apprentice from Somerset, Harry Patch can hardly have imagined that today - a century later - royalty would be among the thousands to gather for his funeral. Nor could he have conceived that an acclaimed rock band from a world he had yet to see would be among those to pay him the highest tribute.

Radiohead's front man Thom Yorke yesterday announced the band was releasing a tribute song to the man dubbed The Last Tommy, the final survivor of the war that was supposed to end all wars, who died a fortnight ago aged 111.

Patch served as a private in the trenches from June to September 1917 and fought in the bloody Battle of Passchendaele which lasted four months leaving more than 800,000 allied and German troops dead or wounded. His war ended on September 22 when he was seriously injured by a German shell, which killed three of his best friends.

The haunting track Harry Patch (In Memory Of) was inspired by an interview the veteran gave in 2005 in which he spoke of the waste and futility of war and why it had taken him more than 80 years to speak of his experiences to anyone - to describe the "disastrous battle" of Passchendaele.

Patch told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "If two governments cannot agree, give them a rifle each and let them fight it out. Don't waste 20,000 men. It isn't worth it."

The song contains the words "I am the only one that got through, the others died wherever they fell" and concludes with the line "I've seen hell upon this earth, the next will be chemical but they will never learn."

Proceeds from the song, available only by download, will go to the Royal British Legion.

Patch was buried in Wells, southwest England, where he died in a care home.

- INDEPENDENT