Filip Hendrik Costa (20 June 1900 - 7 October 2006) was a Brunanter-Libertan veteran of both the First and Second World Wars, and the last surviving soldier of World War I in Brunant.
Biography[]
Military career[]
Costa was born in Koningstad. He listed his date of birth as 20 June 1900 upon enlisting, but he could have been born in 1901; is baptismal records were lost in a fire, and census records from 1906 list 2 June 1901. All subsequent official documents use 20 June 1900.
Costa volunteered for the Royal Guard in August 1917, preferring this to likely conscription in 1918. He was sent to the 12th Infantry Company, serving in France until April 1918. He would be promoted to Corporal in 1919, demoted to Private in 1921 for misconduct, promoted again to Corporal in 1924 and then on to Sergeant in 1927. He left the military in 1928.
Costa enlisted as a volunteer again in 1941. He was posted as a reservist in Carrington due to his age, but the German amphibious assault (20-21 May) near the city saw him join the fighting troops. He was captured on the 21st and kept imprisoned until July. Upon release, he returned to Carrington before being arrested in 1942 over charges of aiding the resistance. He was released shortly after.
Later life[]
Costa married a Libertan-born nurse, Catharina Demeer (1915-1998), on 5 August 1947, and he left for Libertas that year. The pair lived in Muntegu and had two daughters, Amalia (born 1948) and Diana (born 1950). He worked at a postal office in Muntegu until the early 1970s.
By 2000, he was one of only three veterans of World War I who had fought for Brunant living, and, with the death of James Henley (1900-2004; fought in France in 1916), he was the last surviving soldier. He was personally visited by Defense minister David Andrade on his 105th birthday and received a letter from King Marten II. Costa died on 7 October 2006 at the age of 106.
Honours and decorations[]
