**The funeral of WWI veteran Harry Patch who died at the age of 111, is due to take place in Wells Cathedral later.**Mr Patch, who was born in 1898 in Combe Down, near Bath, was Britain’s last surviving soldier who fought in the trenches during the Great War.
Many roads in the area will be closed along the route to be taken by the cortege and the service will be shown on a big screen on Cathedral Green.
Mr Patch died on 25 July at a care home in Wells.
The Duchess of Cornwall and Duchess of Gloucester are due to attend the funeral service.
Private burial
On Thursday morning the bells of Wells Cathedral will toll 111 times at 1100 BST to mark every year of Mr Patch’s life. It is expected this will take around 50 minutes.
His coffin will begin its journey from Fletcher House care home to the cathedral at 1130 BST.
It will be flanked by six private soldiers of the Rifles Regiment, the successor to Mr Patch’s Regiment, the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry.
Two soldiers from the armies of Belgium, France and Germany will also be taking part.
In this way the organisers of the funeral said they hoped to symbolise Mr Patch’s desire for reconciliation and his view that, “irrespective of the uniforms we wore, we were all victims”.
Following the funeral service, Mr Patch’s coffin will be taken from the cathedral for a private burial.
**The service will be shown live on the **BBC Somerset website.
A special edition of BBC Points West will pay tribute to Harry Patch’s life on BBC One West (Sky 986) at 1830 BST and afterwards on the BBC iPlayer.