By Bridget Johnson, your guide to Journalism

As people such as Steven Spielberg are wisely gathering the tales of an elderly World War II veteran population, many people forget that there are still vets of The Great War — World War I — alive to tell the tale. Sadly, France lost their last WWI vet, Lazare Ponticelli (yes, he’s actually Italian, but fought for France and became a French citizen), on Wednesday at the ripe ol’ age of 110. Or, as the AP puts in in perspective, Ponticelli is the last of 8.4 million French who fought in WWI (1.4 million of those died in battle).

Ponticelli — who lied about his age to enlist at age 16 — wasn’t keen to the idea of a state funeral unless all of his fellow fighters were honored as well. So France is holding a national funeral ceremony Monday to remember the grisly era of trench warfare, the great clash that left Europe reeling and set the stage for World War II.

The oldest living World War I vet — and oldest living vet, period — is Henry Allingham, 111 years old, who is the last survivor of the greatest naval battle in The Great War, the Battle of Jutland.