Raymond Cambefort was, at age 107, one of the last five identified World War I veterans living in France, dying four days before another French-born veteran, Louis de Cazenave

Louis de Cazenave

Louis de Cazenave was, at the time of his death, the oldest surviving French veteran of World War I.De Cazenave became the oldest poilu following the death of 111-year-old Maurice Floquet on November 10, 2006...

. He lived in the Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

 region.

Early years

Cambefort was the third and youngest child in the family before one of his elder brothers predeceased him shortly after birth. His other older brother Gustav, was born three years before Raymond. Raymond later went to school and received his certificate of primary education. He then became a mechanic

Mechanic

A mechanic is a craftsman or technician who uses tools to build or repair machinery.Many mechanics are specialized in a particular field such as auto mechanics, bicycle mechanics, motorcycle mechanics, boiler mechanics, general mechanics, industrial maintenance mechanics , air conditioning and...

 modeler in 1918.

Service

Cambefort signed up for service on 28 August 1918, and served until 4 November 1919. Despite the fact he was a French soldier in the trenches, the French government did not recognize him as an official poilu

Poilu

Poilu is a warmly informal term for a French World War I infantryman, meaning, literally, hairy one. The term came into popular usage in France during the era of Napoleon Bonaparte and his massive citizen armies, though the term grognard was also common. It is still widely used as a term of...

; he fought less than the official three months needed (exactly during two months and two weeks before the Armistice

Armistice with Germany (Compiègne)

The armistice between the Allies and Germany was an agreement that ended the fighting in the First World War. It was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a complete defeat for Germany, although not technically a surrender...

).

He fought in NCO Reserve in World War II as a Corporal

Corporal

Corporal is a rank in use in some form by most militaries and by some police forces or other uniformed organizations. It is usually equivalent to NATO Rank Code OR-4....

. Cambefort returned home on 30 October 1939.

See also

Veterans of the First World War who died in 2008
List of last surviving World War I veterans by country