Great War veteran eyes Wrekin

When a retained firefighter asked the last-known surviving British veteran from the World War I trenches what ambitions he still had to achieve, it was reaching the top of a Shropshire landmark that came to mind.

Now Chris Baldwin is busy making the arrangements in a bid to achieve 109-year-old Harry Patch's wish to climb The Wrekin.

Mr Baldwin, of Llangynw, Welshpool, who is interested in World War I history, first met Mr Patch a couple of weeks ago after tracking him down to his nursing home in Wells, Somerset.

Mr Baldwin, 56, is a fire prevention officer with Shropshire Primary Care Trust.

And centenarian Mr Patch, who married his first wife, Trench-born Ada Billington, at Holy Trinity church in Hadley in 1919, was a member of the auxiliary fire service during World War II.

Mr Baldwin said: "I just asked, with all the things he had done since his 100th birthday, was there anything left he wanted to do.

"His comment was 'there's not a lot of time left, is there' and he chuckled.

"Then he thought for a moment and leaned over and said 'climb The Wrekin'. It's just something he has never done. On my way home I started thinking about it and thought we need to achieve that."Mr Patch, originally from Bath, served with the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry after being conscripted into the First World War at 18.

Just weeks later, he was thrown into one of the bloodiest and most brutal battles of the war, at Passchendaele, near the Belgian town of Ypres, in 1917.

Mr Patch, who also lived at Church Stretton and puts his longevity down to the Shropshire air, lost three of his closest friends and was himself badly injured and demobilised.

He met his wife while recuperating in Telford and later worked as a plumber in Gobowen.

Father-of-one Mr Baldwin, a retained firefighter in Llanfair Caereinion, said: "If it all goes well and he is able to stop overnight, then I would like his friend to bring him up to Shropshire to perhaps visit Gobowen, maybe Trench, certainly Hadley.

"Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service is willing to assist to get him up to the top of the Wrekin in a 4x4.

"It would be exhilarating if we are able to achieve one of his wishes."

On Saturday, Mr Patch was the guest of honour during the poppy appeal launch in Weston-super-Mare, where a cannon blast signalled the start of Somerset's commemorations.

By Lisa Rowley