| Florence Beatrice Green | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 19 February 1901 (age 111 years, 24 days) Edmonton, London, England |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/branch | Women's Royal Air Force |
| Years of service | 1918–1919 |
| Battles/wars | World War I |
Florence Beatrice Green (née Patterson, born 19 February 1901) is the last known living veteran of the First World War. She was a member of the Women's Royal Air Force.
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Green was born at Edmonton, London, England, to Frederick and Sarah (nėe Neal) Patterson, and moved to King's Lynn in 1920, after her marriage to Walter Green. Her husband, a railway worker, died in 1970 after 50 years of marriage. She still lives in King's Lynn with her daughter May, who was born in 1921.
Green joined the Women's Royal Air Force in September 1918 at the age of 17,[1][2] where she served as an officers' mess steward.[3] She worked in the officers' mess at RAF Marham and was also based at Narborough airfield.[3][4] She is West Norfolk's oldest resident, the second oldest person in Norfolk, and one of the 10 oldest people in Britain. She was identified as a Great War veteran in January 2010.[3]
On 19 February 2011 she celebrated her 110th birthday, becoming a supercentenarian—one of just 10 living in the United Kingdom, all women. On 20 July 2011, the Gerontology Research Group verified her age, and listed her as an official supercentenarian[5] She has a son and two daughters, as well as four grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.[4][6]
With the death of Claude Choules on 5 May 2011, Green became the last known living veteran of World War I.[7]
In 2011 an image of Florence Beatrice Green became part of a subject for the "WWI Centenary Mural" created by Christian Corbet and Benjamin Trickett Mercer.