London, Aug 6 - Led by ministers and royalty, Britain Thursday bade farewell to Harry Patch, the nation's last surviving veteran of the First World War - a simple working class man who once refused to kill his German enemy soldier on a matter of principle.

Patch, who died July 25 at the age of 111 - he was Europe's oldest man, was cremated at Wells Cathedral, Somerset, after funeral service attended by Britain's veterans minister Kevan Jones, and the Duchesses of Cornwall and Gloucester, among other dignitaries.

Thousands more turned up at the Cathedral Green, where a giant screen had been put up, for a man known as the Last Tommy - the name by which British working class soldiers were known during World War I.

Soldiers from four countries - Britain, Belgium, France and Germany - were pall-bearers of the coffin, which was driven through the city of Wells to the applause of crowds of mourners.

Patch, who was conscripted in 1916, fought in the trenches in France as an assistant gunner in the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry.