Francesco Domenico Chiarello

Who was Francesco Domenico Chiarello?

Francesco Domenico Chiarello, Knight of Vittorio Veneto, was, at age 109, one of the last two soldiers in the world to see action in both World Wars, as Briton Sydney Lucas was still in training when World War I ended and Claude Choules was a seaman. Chiarello was also one of the last two surviving Italian and Alpine Front veterans of the First World War, along with fellow 109-year-old Delfino Borroni.

Called up in 1918, he enlisted in the Castrovillari. He spent three months in training and then served as an infantryman at Cosenza. First sent to the front line in Trentino, he was later sent by sea from the port of Taranto to Albania. There he contracted malaria, but recovered in a field hospital. Afterwards he was sent to Montenegro where he served for two more years in the Italian army.

He later married and ran his farm in Umbriatico, but in 1940 he was called up again to fight in the Second World War at Reggio Calabria, to be discharged after six months. He lived in Cirò Marina until his death in June 2008.