Crowds applaud as funeral farewell marks extraordinary life of WWI veteran.

THE remarkable life of First World War veteran Henry Allingham was celebrated at a funeral service to mark the passing of the last founder member of the RAF.

Mr Allingham, who was the world's oldest man, died peacefully in his sleep, at the age of 113, on July 18, at St Dunstan's care home for blind ex-service personnel in Ovingdean, near Brighton, East Sussex.

Hundreds turned out to pay their respects to the "extraordinary" Mr Allingham at a service with full military honours at the 14th-century St Nicholas Church, in Brighton.

The service Following the service, five replica World War I aircraft - whose airframes Mr Allingham worked on during his service with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm and subsequently the RAF - flew overhead.

Also in attendance dressed in black was Mr Allingham's estranged daughter, Betty Hankin, 89, accompanied by seven family members.

Many of Mr Allingham's relatives travelled from the United States to join the Royal, political and military dignitaries to honour him.

His medals, including the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, were carried by his greatgrandsons, Michael Gray and Brent Gray, both petty officers in the United States Navy.

of Crowds broke into spontaneous applause as his Union Flag-draped coffin arrived in the church grounds before sentences were read by Father Robert Chavner, the parish priest at St Nicholas.

Their deaths mean that 108-year-old Claude Choules, who lives in Australia, has assumed the mantle of the only remaining British-born veteran of World War I.

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Henry Allingham's funeral was accompanied by a fly-past