Description
Gladys Stokes Luxford Powers was thought to be, at age 109, the last female veteran of the First World War following the 27 March 2007 death of fellow 109-year-old Charlotte Winters from the US. However the subsequent discovery of fellow Britons Ivy Campany, who died on 19 December 2008, and Florence Green has disproved this. Regardless, Powers was the last veteran living in Canada, following the death of Dwight Wilson on 9 May 2007, the day before Powers' 108th birthday. The last Canadian-born veteran, 109-year-old John Babcock, later moved to the United States where he lived until his death on 18 February 2010.
Powers was born in Lewisham, County of London, the daughter of Frederick Charles Stokes. During her childhood she lived in both Turkey and Australia. In 1915, she volunteered as a barracks waitress for the WAAC despite the minimum age being 17. Later she transferred to the WRAF. In 1920, she married Edward Luxford, a Canadian soldier, whom she had met while visiting her older brother, Cyril, in hospital, where the latter was recovering from shell shock incurred during the war. [More at Wikipedia]
Born
May 10th, 1899 in Lewisham / Died: Aug 15th, 2008 - at the age of 109, natural causes
Last Changes
2008/08/24
The celebrity has been marked as passed away
2008/01/27
The Claim to Fame has changed
2008/01/04
New Response (OLD!) (Success): Sent and received back a signed article. She's ha..