PRODIGAL RETURNS: CANADA'S LAST LIVING FIRST WAR VET IS A CANADIAN AGAIN

On Feb. 1, 1916, a young man - too young, it turned out - pledged allegiance to King George V and volunteered to fight for Canada. This week, 92 years later, John Henry Foster Babcock pledged allegiance again, this time to the king's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, and reconnected with the land of his birth. Believed to be Canada's last surviving veteran of the First World War, Mr. Babcock is now 107 - and a Canadian once more. A mere 15 when he enlisted, he never saw action and after the war moved to the United States, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen. But last month, he wrote asking to renew his status, and Ottawa quickly agreed. "I'm happy to be back," he said after the ceremony at his home in Spokane, Wash. "There are a lot of nice people in Canada - a lot of good-looking ones too."