Hundreds Attend Funeral Of WWII Veteran They Didn't Know
Whether you know it as Veterans Day here in the U.S. or as Remembrance Day in Commonwealth countries, we think you'll agree that something remarkable happened on this Nov. 11 in England.
"Hundreds of people from across the U.K. have attended the funeral in Lancashire of a World War II veteran they never knew," the BBC reports.
The local Blackpool Gazette has more:
"Harold Jellicoe Percival died aged 99 without close friends or relatives at hand at a nursing home, where staff worried no one would be at his funeral to mark his passing.
"But after a public appeal in The Gazette and on social networks for the Second World War veteran, roads were blocked with traffic and the crematorium unable to hold the numbers of mourners at his funeral, poignantly beginning at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. ...
" 'It's just staggering,' his nephew, Andre Collyer-Worsell, said after attending the service. ... He was not a hero, he was just someone who did his duty in World War Two, just as his brother and sister did and his father before him in World War One. We were expecting a few people, a few local veterans but suddenly it snowballed. It's the sort of send-off you would want to give any loved one.' "