Combe Down, England ? He was a soldier, a survivor of the trenches — and, in later years, an advocate for peace.

Harry Patch, Britain’s last known surviving World War I infantryman, was buried Thursday in this, his home village in western England, as was his wish. He died last month at the age of 111.

The burial followed a magnificent funeral in Wells Cathedral, 20 miles to the southwest — a service thrust on him by his late-blooming fame as one of the last witnesses to a war that killed at least 8.5 million soldiers.

And then he was taken home, where his memories would haunt him no more.

“All he wanted was burial in Combe Down,” said Mike Wool, a neighbor of Patch’s stepson. “He wanted a simple service.”

The funeral, true to Patch’s insistence that victims on all sides be honored, included officials and soldiers from France, Belgium and Germany, the former foe. Some 1,100 people filled the cathedral; hundreds more stood outside, following the service on a huge TV screen.

Jim Ross, a friend who spoke at the funeral, described Patch as an ordinary man, the plumber from Combe Down.

But he was also an extraordinary man who produced a vivid memoir, “The Last Fighting Tommy,” a reference to the nickname for the era’s soldiers.

Ross said Patch described his war experiences only reluctantly, and only in his final years.