Claude Choules

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Claude Choules
March 3, 1901 –
Place of birth	Image:Flag of England.svg Pershore, Worcestershire, England
Allegiance	Image:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg British Image:Flag of Australia.svg Australian
Service/branch	Royal Navy Royal Australian Navy
Years of service	1916 – 1956
Rank	Acting Torpedo Officer, Fremantle Chief Demolition Officer
Battles/wars	World War I World War II

Claude Stanley Choules (born March 3, 1901) is, at age 106, one of the last surviving U.K. veterans of the First World War, and one of the two remaining British veterans who emigrated to Australia.

Born in Pershore, Worcestershire, Choules joined the Royal Navy as a young man in 1916, and served aboard the Naval Training Ship HMS Impregnable situated at Devonport dockyard. In 1917, he joined the battleship HMS Revenge, which was the flagship of the First Battle Squadron. While serving aboard her, Choules witnessed the surrender of the German Imperial Navy at the Firth of Forth in 1918, ten days after the Armistice, and was also to witness the scuttling of the fleet at Scapa Flow.^[1]

In 1926, along with eleven other Royal Navy senior sailors, he came to Australia on loan as an instructor at Flinders Naval Depot. Choules decided to transfer permanently to the Royal Australian Navy after sampling and agreeing with the Australian way of life. He took his discharge from the RAN in 1931, but remained in the reserves and rejoined the RAN in 1932 as a CPO Torpedo and Anti Submarine Instructor.

During the Second World War, Choules was the Acting Torpedo Officer of Fremantle and also the Chief Demolition Officer on the western side of the Australian continent. He was tasked with sabotaging Fremantle harbours and related oil storage tanks in the event of a Japanese invasion.

Choules remained in the RAN after WWII and transferred to the Naval Dockyard Police (NDP) to allow him to remain in service until 1956, as retirement from the RAN for ratings in those days was at 50 years, while personnel could serve until 55 years old in the NDP.