Maurice Floquet, 111; oldest living French veteran of World War I

Maurice Floquet, 111, who had been France’s oldest living World War I veteran, died Friday at his home in Montauroux in southern France, an association of veterans said.

With Floquet’s death, only four French veterans of the Great War are still alive.

Born Dec. 25, 1894, Floquet joined the infantry in September 1914. He fought in France and Belgium and was seriously wounded twice. The first time, in the battle of the Somme in northern France, he was injured during hand-to-hand fighting and nearly suffocated on a clot of blood lodged in his throat, according to France’s Defense Ministry.

The second time, on the Marne front in 1915, he was wounded in the head by a grenade -- losing the use of one ear -- and suffered bullet wounds in his left arm.

After the war, he married and worked as a repairman of cars, tractors and other agricultural machinery. He retired in 1952 and had been a widower since 1990. In 2005, he was honored by France with a Legion of Honor medal.

Floquet kept in shape by riding a stationary bicycle in his daughter’s home, where he lived, L’Express magazine wrote last year. He often talked to school classes about his wartime experiences.

Floquet was moved “to be an old man, a 111-year-old who fought in World War I, meeting 12- and 13-year-old kids who only knew about the war from history books,” Daniel Venget, who runs an association of veterans in southern France, told France-Inter radio.

Today France will mark the 88th anniversary of the end of World War I in a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. One of the surviving World War I veterans, 107-year-old Rene Riffaud, was expected to travel from his retirement home in Normandy to take part in the ceremony.