Allegiance United Kingdom Name George Ives Service/branch British Army | Years of service 1899–1902 Died April 12, 1993 Unit Imperial Yeomanry | |
George Frederick Ives (17 November 1881 – 12 April 1993) was a British army veteran, who became known as the last surviving veteran of the Boer Wars. Ives became known in the UK after a piece in the Peterborough Column in the Daily Telegraph (UK). His record as oldest British veteran, at 111 and 146 days, of any war was broken on 1 November 2007 by First World War veteran Henry Allingham.
Biography
Ives was born at Brighton, England. The family worked for the Tidmarsh family. He worked in his father's workshop in Bristol until 1899. That December, Ives was eager to enlist after hearing that the British had been defeated at Colenso, Magersfontein.
In the Boer War, George fought with the Imperial Yeomanry, along with 122 other veterans, of the British Army in South Africa.
Ives emigrated to Canada in 1903 with his father and purchased 160 acres (0.65 km2) of land for ten dollars. He was rejected from service in World War I because of a heart murmur.
In 1910, he married Kay Nelson. The couple had three sons and three daughters. Nelson disliked the hard life of the prairies, so the family moved in 1919 to White Rock, British Columbia. Ives owned a farm there and eventually retired from it in 1941. He looked and found another job because he said that his retirement was an excuse to change jobs. So until 1956, 15 years later, he worked in a shipyard building wooden scows, and confirmed his retirement.
The couple had resided in that same house until 1984, until moving into a retirement home. His wife died in 1987. He attended the Albert Hall service on Remembrance day 1992 in England and met Queen Elizabeth and her mother; Baroness Margaret Thatcher, and Prime Minister John Major. At the time, he was the last living allowed to wear a Queen Victoria Medal and raised a wreath at the memorial. Ives died on 12 April 1993 at aged 111 years, 146 days in White Rock, British Columbia, Canada.