Delfino Borroni
Delfino Edmondo Borroni, Knight of Vittorio Veneto, was, at age 110, Italy's oldest man, and the eleventh-oldest verified man in the world.
He was the last veteran of the Alpine Front in the First World War, following the June 2008 death of the penultimate Italian Francesco Domenico Chiarello. The last Austro-Hungarian veteran, Franz Künstler, died in May 2008. At the time of his death, there two other trench veterans survived: Englishman Harry Patch and Frenchman Fernand Goux, who fought on the Western Front.
Borroni, a mechanic, was born in Giussago, in the province of Pavia; he was called up in January 1917, and assigned to the 6th Bersaglieri Regiment in March. He first saw action in the Pasubio Alpine massif, where he fought against the Austro-Hungarian forces. He also fought in Valsugana and at Caporetto, where, after being shot in the heel while on a dangerous reconnaissance mission, he was captured as an Austrian prisoner of war and was forced to dig trenches until he managed to escape in the last days of the war.
He was seriously wounded as a civilian, a tram driver, in an Allied air raid during World War II.
His death was noted in the news. The Italian Government's Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa attended the funeral.
