He saw three centuries.

There was some sad news this week about Alfred Anderson, the last person to witness the famous WW1 Christmas truce in the trenches, who died aged 109.

I found this interview with him. I was especially struck by the fact that he saw three centuries. It's rare to live past 100, and it must be very rare to be born in a year when you have a realistic chance of seeing three different centuries. It would take me until 131.

We'll soon be in the happy situation, as a society, where few people will remember going to war; obviously there will be people who voluntarily joined the forces and were sent to Iraq, or wherever, but the WW2 generation are at least 78 now. I suppose it's different for US readers (Hi there) who might have relatives who went to Korea or Vietnam, but I suggest that everyone here makes an effort to listen to elderly people, because we'll gradually lose anybody who could give a firsthand account of war.

Although, on the other hand, we'll gradually gain refugees and asylum seekers who know only too well about war; in addition, as more Eastern Europeans make their homes here, there will be people who remember the conflict in places like Bosnia. I kept thinking, when we were in Croatia, that even teenagers there could remember what it was like to be at war.

Sorry, I'll be a bit less heavy next time!