"THE founder of the World War One Veterans’ Association has died at his home, aged 91. Dennis Goodwin, who was awarded an MBE in 2008 for his service to veterans, said he wanted to educate children about a “special generation”. With his son and association co-founder Stephen, Mr Goodwin brought together some 400 survivors of the Great War. The association, set up in 1989, helped provide a forum for veterans to talk about their experiences. It also arranged trips for them to revisit the battlefields of France and Belgium and held events at venues such as Buckingham Palace and Parliament. Speaking to the BBC in 2014, Mr Goodwin’s wife Brenda said: “There was no way their family or friends could understand what they’d been through.” Her husband fought to help veterans obtain pensions and compensation for the long-term effects of the war on their physical and mental health. As the years went on, the number of surviving veterans of the war in Britain dwindled to just three – Harry Patch, Bill Stone and Henry Allingham. Thanks to Mr Goodwin, from Sussex, the three became good friends until the last survivor died in 2009. A family statement said: “As the veterans diminished in numbers, the supercentenarians came into their own and Dennis took Henry Allingham (who reached the age of 113 years), Harry Patch and Bill Stone to all the remembrances and other functions until 2009, when the last one died. “During that time we met almost every member of the royal family, many celebrities, all of whom were fascinated by the veterans.” The son of a fireman, Mr Goodwin was born on October 23, 1926 in a Lancashire fire station. During the Second World War, he served with the RAF in Burma Singapore and Malaysia until 1948." Founder of WWI vets’ group dies
It's always bothered me that I never got to meet a WW1 veteran, They were the fathers of those who would fight and die in the second World War, such a tragedy that so many of two generations never got to live a full and good life. There were the millions who died in the first and Second World War, but also the countless millions who died in Civil Wars and other local conflicts between the two wars and directly after the Second.
