ON MAY 7, 1892, Private Tomas Mateo Claudio, a former Bureau of Prisons employee, the first Filipino soldier to die in First World War was born in Morong, Rizal.
First was fired for sleeping on the job as a guard at the Bureau of Prisons, he traveled to Hawaii and worked in a sugar plantation.
He then traveled to California and made his way up to Alaska where he canned salmon.
Afterwards, he moved to Nevada where he studied commerce and, after graduating, found work as a clerk at the local Post Office.
He eventually enlisted in the US Marine Corps as part of the American Expeditionary Forces to Europe and fought in the French trenches. He was the only Filipino casualty of the First World War.
Tomas Claudio Colleges originally located in Morong was named in his honor.
