Lieutenant Henry John Lawrence Botterell
Individual attestation record images are not available for this person.
PERSONAL INFORMATION
MILITARY INFORMATION
Lieutenant (Air Force).
Legion d'Honneur - Croix de Chevalier (France)
RESEARCH INFORMATION
Believed to be the last surviving WWI pilot, he died at the age of 106 on January 3, 2003.
Brother of Captain Edward Simpson Botterell, 15th Battalion, C.E.F.
In 1998 the French government honoured surviving veterans of the Great War who had served on French or Belgian soil by awarding them the Legion of Honour/Légion d'Honneur (Chevalier). In November that year Veterans Affairs Canada brought 17 of the Canadian veterans being honoured on a trip to France and Belgium. Henry Botterell was one of the group and he celebrated his 102nd birthday in Lille, France.
The veterans left Canada on 4 November and the trip included visits to Lille, Le Quesnel, the Somme, Bourlon Wood, Ypres, and the Passchendaele and St. Julien monuments. They were in Mons, Belgium on 11 November, the 80th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice. The veterans received their Legion of Honour medals during a ceremony at Vimy (Legion Magazine, 1 January 1999, "Solemn Moments in Mons" by Ray Dick).
http://knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Henry_John_Lawrence_Botterell/