Justin Tuveri was, at age 109, one of the last Italian veterans of the First World War

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and a French citizen at the time of his death.

Tuveri was born Giustino Tuveri in Collinas

Collinas

Collinas is a comune in the Province of Medio Campidano in the Italian region Sardinia, located about 50 km northwest of Cagliari and about 9 km northwest of Sanluri...

, on the island of Sardinia

Sardinia

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

. He was drafted in 1917, and fought in several campaigns, including Sassari

Sassari

Sassari is an Italian city. It is the second-largest city of Sardinia in terms of population with about 130,000 inhabitants, or about 300,000 including the greater metropolitan area...

.

Due to the rise of Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

 and the Fascists

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

, Tuveri moved to France in 1920, becoming a French citizen in 1940.

He died in Saint-Tropez

Saint-Tropez

Saint-Tropez is a town, 104 km to the east of Marseille, in the Var department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. It is also the principal town in the canton of Saint-Tropez....

, France.

External links

• http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0,36-708425,0.html
• http://dersdesders.free.fr/bio_veterans/tuveri.html
• http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2007/10/12/justin_tuveri_at_109_fought_for_italy_during_world_war_i/