One day some time before 1914, an elderly gentleman from the Austrian crownland of Galicia was strolling through Vienna. Seeing some soldiers drilling on a parade ground, he asked a nearby officer what regiment that might be. The officer told him. “That is my regiment!” the gentleman responded. As it turned out, he was the oldest surviving member of the unit. He was invited to headquarters and suitably feted.

That, at least, is the story he told his son. Half a century and half a world away, the latter related it to his own grandson.