Alfred Anderson, the last surviving soldier to have heard the guns fall silent along the Western Front during the spontaneous Christmas truce of the First World War, died yesterday at age 109.

Story here:
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/International/2005/11/22/1317428-sun.html


Last year his amazing story was told in the UK by The Observer:

Lorna Martin, Scotland editor
Sunday December 19, 2004
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1376965,00.html

"The words drifted across the frozen battlefield: 'Stille Nacht. Heilige Nacht. Alles Schlaft, einsam wacht'. To the ears of the British troops peering over their trench, the lyrics may have been unfamiliar but the haunting tune was unmistakable. After the last note a lone German infantryman appeared holding a small tree glowing with light. 'Merry Christmas. We not shoot, you not shoot.'

It was just after dawn on a bitingly cold Christmas Day in 1914, 90 years ago on Saturday, and one of the most extraordinary incidents of the Great War was about to unfold.

Weary men climbed hesitantly at first out of trenches and stumbled into no man's land. They shook hands, sang carols, lit each other's cigarettes, swapped tunic buttons and addresses and, most famously, played football, kicking around empty bully-beef cans and using their caps or steel helmets as goalposts. The unauthorised Christmas truce spread across much of the 500-mile Western Front where more than a million men were encamped.

According to records held by the World War One Veterans' Association, there is only one man in the world still alive who spent 25 December 1914 serving in a conflict that left 31 million people dead, wounded or missing."

That man was Alfred Anderson.
May he rest in glory.

Yup and he was a Scotsman!. I watched a program about him last week, the man had some resilliancy. Well now he is reliving his truce with his brothers and his enemies, in the biggest stadium, to the best spectator.
Rest in Peace big man!