Jozef Kowalski

Józef Kowalski (2 February 1903 - 7 December 2013) was a Ukrainian-Polish supercentenarian and the second-to-last surviving veteran of the 1919–1921 Polish-Soviet War. Kowalski served in the 22nd Uhlan Regiment of the Polish Army. He took part in the September Campaign in World War II, and was later held in a concentration camp. On his claimed 110th birthday, he was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta for his war service by President Lech Kaczyński, of Poland. He lived in Tursk, near Sulęcin, in a care home. On 23 February 2012 Kowalski was promoted to the rank of kapitan, and on 16 August 2012 he was nominated to become an honorary citizen of the city of Wołomin, having already become an honorary citizen of both Warsaw and Radzymin.

While he claimed to have been born in 1900, due to the birthdates of his siblings, it is believed he was actually born in 1903 and inflated his age to enlist. Nevertheless, Kowalski was still likely the second-oldest man in the world when he died, behind Arturo Licata, and a day ahead of the third-oldest, Alexander Imich, and two days ahead of the fourth-oldest, Sakari Momoi.

He passed away on 7 December 2013, aged 110 years, 312 days. After his death, Alexander Imich became both the last surviving veteran of the Polish-Soviet War and the last surviving World War 1-era veteran.