Lazare Ponticelli Lazare Ponticelli ( born Lazzaro Ponticelli , 24 December 1897 , later transcribed as 7 December — 12 March 2008 ) , Knight of Vittorio Veneto , was at 110 , the last surviving officially recognized veteran of the First World War from France and the last " poilu " of its trenches to die . Born in Italy , he travelled on his own to France at the age of eight . Aged 16 , he lied about his age in order to join the French Army at the start of the war in 1914 , before being transferred against his will to the Italian Army the following year . After the war , he and his brothers founded the piping and metal work company " Ponticelli Frères " ( Ponticelli Brothers ) , which produced supplies for the Second World War effort and as of 2009 was still in business . Ponticelli was the oldest living man of Italian birth and the oldest man living in France at the time of his death . Every Armistice Day until 2007 he attended ceremonies honoring deceased veterans . In his later years , he criticized war , and stored his awards from the First World War in a shoe box . While he felt unworthy of the state funeral the French government offered him , he eventually accepted one . However , he asked for the emphasis of the procession to be on the common soldiers who died on the battlefield . French president Nicolas Sarkozy honored his wish and dedicated a plaque to them at the procession . Early life . Born as Lazzaro Ponticelli in Groppo Ducale , a civil parish in the town of Bettola , Piacenza province , in northern Italy , he was raised in the mountain hamlet of I Cordani , one of seven children born to Jean and Philomène Ponticelli . His father sold livestock on the fairgrounds and occasionally worked as a carpenter and cobbler . His mother cultivated the family ' s small plot of land and , like many women of the area , commuted three times a year to the Po Valley to work in its rice fields . Despite the Ponticelli family ' s hard work , they were impoverished and the children often went to bed on an empty stomach . When Lazare was two years of age , his mother moved to France to earn a better living . After the unexpected deaths of Jean Ponticelli and his eldest son , Pierre , the rest of the family moved to Paris , leaving Lazare in the care of neighbors . At age six , Ponticelli started several jobs , including making clogs . By 1906 Lazzaro had saved enough money to buy a railway ticket to Paris , which he considered " paradise . " To travel to the capital of France , he walked to the nearest train station at Piacenza . He could not speak French , though he found work as a chimney sweep in Nogent - sur - Marne and later as a paper boy in Paris . He obtained a work permit at age 13 . World War I . In August 1914 , shortly after the outbreak of World War I , Ponticelli joined the 1st Régiment de Marche of the French Foreign Legion at 16 years old , lying about his age to do so . There he rediscovered his older brother , Céleste Ponticelli , who had also joined the regiment . According to Ponticelli , France had done much for him , and serving was his way of showing his gratitude . He served at Soissons in Picardy , northeast France , and at Douaumont , near Verdun . Ponticelli worked at digging burial pits and trenches . In keeping a promise to Céleste to always assist others , he rescued a German and a French soldier who were wounded in the arm and leg , respectively . Ponticelli was not a French citizen and in May 1915 , when Italy entered the war , he was conscripted into the Italian Army . Although he attempted to remain with his French regiment , he eventually enlisted in the 3rd Alpini Regiment , after being escorted to Turin by two gendarmes . Ponticelli saw service against the Austro - Hungarian Army at Mount Piccolo on the Austria – Italy border . At his new post as a machine gunner , Ponticelli was seriously wounded by a shell during an assault on an Austrian mountain position . He was returned to his post after rest and recuperation in Naples . In an undated interview , he described being injured : " " Blood was running into my eyes . . . I continued firing despite my wound . " " Once , his regiment ceased fighting the Austrians for three weeks . The armies , who mostly spoke each other ' s tongue , swapped loaves of bread for tobacco and photographed each other . In 1918 Ponticelli was gassed in an Austrian attack that killed hundreds of his fellow soldiers . Reflecting on war , he said : " " You shoot at men who are fathers . War is completely stupid . " " In one of his last interviews , Ponticelli stated he was amazed at his own survival . Ponticelli Frères . After being demobilized in 1920 , Ponticelli founded a metal work company with Céleste and Bonfils , his youngest brother , which they called " Ponticelli Frères " ( " Ponticelli Brothers " ) . Located in the 13th arrondissement of Paris , it became profitable and well known in its field . It was incorporated as a private limited company in 1932 , when its primary work was with industrial chimneys . During the Second World War , Ponticelli , who became a French citizen in 1939 , was too old for combat but supported the war effort by supplying soldiers with his products . He moved his factory into an unoccupied zone when Germany invaded and occupied France . After Vichy France was taken over by the Germans , he returned northwards and began working with the resistance . In the aftermath of World War II , Ponticelli added a piping department to his company . He continued managing the company until his retirement in 1960 . At the time of his death it was reported that the company had 4 , 000 employees and its annual revenue ( 2005 ) was €300 million . The company now operates in several countries outside France , such as Angola . Later life . Until his death , Ponticelli lived with his daughter in the Paris suburb of Le Kremlin - Bicêtre , and every 11 November until 2007 he attended Armistice Day ceremonies . An honored citizen of his adopted town , Ponticelli voted in the 2007 presidential and legislative elections . He officially became a supercentenarian on 7 December 2007 , celebrating his official 110th birthday at the National History of Immigration Museum . He kept his war medals in a shoebox . When originally offered a state funeral by then French President Jacques Chirac , Ponticelli asserted that he did not want one , although the death of the penultimate recognized soldier , Louis de Cazenave , on 20 January 2008 caused him to reconsider . He eventually accepted a small ceremony " in the name of all those who died , men and women , " during World War I . Ponticelli died at 12 : 45 pm ( 11 : 45 GMT ) at his home in Le Kremlin - Bicêtre on 12 March 2008 , aged 110 . At the time of his death , Ponticelli was the oldest living man of Italian birth and the oldest man living in France . Nicolas Sarkozy , the French president , released a statement and said there would be a day of national remembrance for the war dead of France . Ponticelli was survived by at least one child , his then - 78 - year - old daughter , Janine Desbaucheron . His state funeral was held on 17 March 2008 . The mass was held at Saint - Louis Cathedral in Les Invalides and was attended by government ministers , soldiers and members of Ponticelli ' s family . French academic Max Gallo delivered the eulogy . At the mass , French " collégien " Guillaume Kaleff read a poem written by his class in Ponticelli ' s honor . Flags were ordered to be flown at half mast while Sarkozy unveiled a plaque dedicated to the veterans of World War I . The French Foreign Legion , the same regiment that Ponticelli fought in , carried his coffin at the funeral . After the procession , he was buried in his family ' s plot at the Ivry - sur - Seine cemetery , located in the Val - de - Marne . On 11 November 2008 , during the first Armistice Day since his death , Rue de Verdun in Le Kremlin - Bicêtre was renamed Rue de Verdun - Lazare - Ponticelli .