ABBOTSFORD, B.C. – The funeral for a B.C. resident believed to be the world’s last female First World War veteran was held on Friday in Abbotsford.
Gladys Powers, who died on Aug. 15 at age 109, lied about her age to enlist in the British Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps when she was 15.
“She was right in it. She was in the underground tunnels when the bombs were dropping,” said her daughter-in-law Pat Powers.
“It’s something you don’t forget and it’s something that affects your life forever.”
Powers, who was living in a seniors’ home in this city 65 kilometres east of Vancouver, was admitted to hospital on Aug. 14 after breaking her hip.
She died in her sleep at 2 a.m. the following morning.
Born in Lewisham, England, in 1899, Powers moved to Turkey with her family before the First World War.
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After her mother died, she returned to England to enlist.
After the war, she immigrated to Canada with her first husband, Canadian soldier Ed Luxford.
She disliked the cold, so the couple moved to Vancouver, walking nearly 1,000 kilometres along the Canadian Pacific tracks in 1925.
“She was a very friendly, outgoing person,” said Pat Powers. “She liked to talk to people and find out what their life story was about. She just generally liked people and never had anything malicious about her.”
Britain’s Veterans Minister Derek Twigg wrote a letter of condolence to Greg Thompson, Canada’s Minister for Veteran Affairs.
“Over 80,000 women served in our Armed Forces during that war,” said Twigg.
“Although they may not have realized it at the time, these early women volunteers did much to break down the barriers for all those service women who have come after them and who continue to serve their country today so proficiently and professionally.”
Britain’s Ministry of Defence could not formally confirm that Powers was the conflict’s last surviving veteran because the records were destroyed during the Blitz in 1940.
American Charlotte Winters, also a female veteran of the First World War, died last year aged 109.
Powers is believed to have been the last First World War veteran living in Canada after Dwight Wilson died aged 106 on May 9, 2007.
Canada’s last veteran, John Babcock, 108, lives in the U.S.
With files from Canwest News Service, Reuters
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