Curly Blyth, New Zealand's oldest First World War soldier, died yesterday in Auckland.
He was 105 years old, and had been living at the Selwyn Village retirement home.
Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrence Morris Blyth will be given a full military funeral at St Mary's Church in Parnell on Monday before a private cremation.
Colonel
Blyth celebrated his last birthday on September 18, waking to receive a telegram of congratulations from the mayor of the French town of Le Quesnoy.
Eighty-three years ago, Curly Blyth and his comrades in the New Zealand Rifle Brigade earned the gratitude of the little walled town when they fixed bayonets, scaled ancient ramparts and routed the occupying German soldiers.
The attack on November 4, 1918, was the last significant action of the war involving New Zealand troops. It forged a bond between New Zealand and Le Quesnoy which has since been unbroken.
In the neighbouring village of Beaudignies, a street leading to the town square has been named Place du Colonel Blyth.
Colonel Blyth was awarded the Military Medal during the 1914-18 war and later France's Cross of Lorraine and the Legion of Honour.
Born in Leeston, Canterbury, in 1896, Mr Blyth was working as a fencer in the Waipukurau district when he enlisted in the 4th Battalion of the Rifle Brigade.
He sailed with the 8th reinforcements in April 1916.
Gassed at the Somme and shot in the head at Messines, he recovered and was selected for officer training.
Commissioned, he led a company that captured a section of railway on the left of the division when the New Zealanders took Le Quesnoy.
He rose to lieutenant-colonel in the home forces in the Second World War.
He is survived by a daughter and son.
- NZPA
