Portraits of the Great War survivors

Remembrance Sunday will be the first with no survivors of World War I living in Britain. A new book, Great War Portraits, profiles the veterans who came home and lived into old age.

Pte Alexander (Alex) Gibson shot and wounded five Germans in a dugout. "I went in and found them in a state of shock, so I gave them rum to calm them down." He was awarded the Military Medal.

Sgt Sidney Lovell served on the Western Front from 1915, saw action during The Battle of the Somme and was awarded the Military Medal for operations on the Italian front. He lost two brothers in the war.

Stanley Clayton of the Royal Engineers was a good footballer in his day. He fought on the Western Front and was still living on his own at 105. He was photographed at Ypres 10 years ago.

Cpl Alfred Razzell took part in an attack on a heavily fortified village on the Somme in 1916. Afterwards he had to collect the pay books from the bodies of his dead comrades. "The mutilation was terrible," he recalled.

Pte Robert (Robbie) Burns took part in an attack at Loos in France in September 1915. "I was hit by hot shrapnel, but saved from serious injury by my greatcoat."

William (Bill) Partridge volunteered as a soldier in 1914 and fought in France, but later became an observer air gunner in the Royal Flying Corps. He was injured when his plane crash-landed while flying low in mist in 1918.

Henry Allingham was the last survivor of the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea in 1916. He is pictured at the Cenotaph last November. Mr Allingham, the world's oldest man, died in July aged 113.

Harry Patch was wounded by shellfire in 1917. The other members of his machine-gun team were killed. The doctor who removed the shrapnel asked Mr Patch if he wanted it as a souvenir. He declined the offer.

Six young soldiers bear the coffin of Harry Patch into Wells Cathedral in Somerset, in August. He died aged 111 - the last British survivor of the carnage on the Western Front. There is more at (www.greatwarportraits.com)