Soldiers in dress uniforms and frail friends in wheelchairs gathered yesterday to pay their last respects to Henry Allingham, a British World War One veteran who was the world's oldest man.

Mr Allingham, who died on July 18 aged 113, had been one of only two surviving British World War One veterans. Since his death the other, Harry Patch, has also died.

In sunshine, war veterans assembled with family and friends for the funeral at a small church in Brighton where Mr Allingham spent his final years in a care home. The church bells tolled 113 times.

"We should never forget the sacrifices made by so many for our freedom," said Veronica Amstruther, 69.

"I hope the young of today do not dismiss this event. They need to think and pay their respects, at least for a moment, to the lives that were sacrificed."

Mr Allingham was born the same year the modern Olympic Games began and Henry Ford invented the forerunner of the modern motor car. He had jokingly credited his long life to "cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women" as well as a sense of humour.

Mr Allingham once said: "People ask me, what's the secret of a long life? I don't know. People ask me how I've done it and I just say that I look forward to another tomorrow."

The head of his care home said that during his last days he was trying to persuade a young nurse working there - 80 years his junior - to marry him. Dorothy, his wife of more than 50 years, died in 1970.

"He had a sense of humour, a wry smile, a twinkle in his eyes, and he used to say 'you're my girl'," recalled Brenda Goodwin, a long-time friend whose husband Dennis Goodwin wrote a book about Mr Allingham.