Oldest British WWI survivor to be honored

Published: Oct. 5, 2008 at 3:49 PM

LONDON, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- A 110-year-old British veteran of World War I will be honored by a musical composition for being the oldest living survivor of the war, the composers say.

Poet laureate Andrew Motion said he is working with Master of the Queen's Music Peter Maxwell Davies to create an oratorio dedicated to veteran Harry Patch, the last living British survivor of the western front conflict of World War I, The Sunday Times of London reported.

Motion said by creating the composition to honor the war veteran and performing it with the choir of Portsmouth grammar school Nov. 9, he hopes to educate young listeners about their country's history.

The oratorio is based on a Motion poem about Patch, who survived the historical battle of Passchendaele that claimed nearly 500,000 lives.

For Davies, creating the musical dedication represents an important connection between history and the musical world.

"We must not be simply passengers in our cultural life, but a driving force," he told The Times.

© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Order reprints



Additional News Stories
Crude oil prices rebound slightly (5 min)
'Galaxy game' lets people help astronomers (6 min)
UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News (17 min)
UPI NewsTrack Sports (17 min)
U.S. markets edge higher Wednesday (32 min)
Charles Darwin first edition fetches $172K (42 min)
Runyan to retire at season's end (42 min)
fark
Photoshop this guy in reflective shades
Suing Activision over World of Warcraft? Don't forget to subpoena Depeche Mode and Winona Rider,...
Hannity: This is one of the coldest years on record, so global warming is a hoax. Science: This...
Spotted cow removed from Mad River in NY. The image in your mind's eye is wrong
This is why you can't have nice things, America: "rather than a retelling of the Nativity story...
Canadian judge rules that the Happy Gilmore golf swing is wrong, biatch