Lazare Ponticelli
- Category : 1897-births
- Type : GP
- Profile : 5/1 - Heretical / Investigator
- Definition : Single
- Incarnation Cross : LAX Separation 2
Biography
Italian-born French World War I veteran. When he died just outside Paris on March 12, 2008 at age 110, he was the last poilu from France and the oldest-living man in France.
Born to a large poor family with seven children, he made his way to France as a young lad. He took on odd jobs including that of a chimney sweep. He joined the First Regiment de Marche of the French Foreign Legion as a young teen (differing reports give age 14 and 16) and fought with the French at the outbreak of WWI. Because he was still a citizen of Italy, he was later conscripted by the Italian military when that country joined the fighting. After the war he returned to France and became a citizen in 1939.