The British tomb of The Unknown Warrior holds an unidentified British soldier killed on a European battlefield during World War I.^[1] He was buried in Westminster Abbey, London on November 11, 1920, the earliest such tomb honouring the unknown dead of World War I. Even the battlefield the Warrior came from is not known, and has been kept secret so that the Unknown Warrior might serve as a symbol for all of the unknown dead wherever they fell. The Unknown Warrior is a recipient of the United States' Medal of Honor. is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... “The Great War ” redirects here. ... The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, which is almost always referred to by its original name of Westminster Abbey, is a mainly Gothic church, on the scale of a cathedral (and indeed often mistaken for one), in Westminster, London, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States. ...

History

Idea

The idea of a Tomb of the Unknown Warrior was first conceived in 1916 by the Reverend David Railton, who while serving as an army chaplain on the Western Front, had seen a grave marked by a rough cross, which bore the pencil-written legend 'An Unknown British Soldier'. Western Front was a term used during the First and Second World Wars to describe the contested armed frontier between lands controlled by Germany to the East and the Allies to the West. ...

He wrote to the Dean of Westminster in 1920 proposing that an unidentified British soldier from the battlefields in France be buried with due ceremony in Westminster Abbey "amongst the kings" to represent the many hundreds of thousands of Empire dead. The idea was strongly supported by the Dean and the then Prime Minister Lloyd George. There was initial opposition from King George V (who feared that such a ceremony would reopen the wounds of a recently concluded war) and others but a surge of emotional support from the great number of bereaved families ensured its adoption. The Abbey at night, from Deans Yard. ... The British Empire in 1897, marked in pink, the traditional colour for Imperial British dominions on maps. ... A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. ... David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor, OM (January 17, 1863–March 26, 1945) was a British statesman and the last Liberal to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. ... George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was the first British monarch belonging to the House of Windsor, which he created from the British branch of the German House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. ...

Selection, arrival and ceremony

Arrangements were placed in the hands of Lord Curzon who prepared in committee the service and location. The body was chosen from four bodies draped with Union Flags at the chapel at St Pol near Arras, France on the night of 7 November 1920 by Brigadier General L.J. Wyatt and Lieutenant Colonel E.A.S. Gell. The remains were placed into a simple pine coffin.^[1] The coffin stayed at the chapel overnight and on the afternoon of November 8, it was transferred under guard to the castle library within the citadel at Boulogne. Troops lined the route and a company of the French 8th Infantry regiment, recently awarded the Légion d'Honneur en masse, stood vigil over it overnight.^[1] George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (January 11, 1859 - March 20, 1925), was a conservative British statesman and sometime Viceroy of India. ... “Union Jack” redirects here. ... Arras (Dutch: ) is a town and commune in northern France, préfecture (capital) of the Pas-de-Calais département. ... is the 311th day of the year (312th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A Brigadier General, or one-star general, is the lowest rank of general officer in the United States and some other countries, ranking just above Colonel and just below Major General. ... In the U.S. Army, Air Force and Marine Corps, a lieutenant colonel is a commissioned officer superior to a major and inferior to a colonel. ... is the 312th day of the year (313th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Boulogne-sur-Mer is a city and commune in northern France, in the Pas-de-Calais département of which it is a sous-préfecture. ... Chiang Kai-sheks Légion dhonneur. ...

The following morning, two undertakers entered the library and placed the coffin into a casket of the oak timbers of trees from Hampton Court Palace.^[1] The casket was banded with iron and a medieval crusader's sword, chosen by the king personally from the Royal Collection, was affixed to the top and surmounted by an iron shield bearing the inscription 'A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914-1918 for King and Country'.^[1] Hampton Court redirects here. ...

The casket was then placed onto a French military wagon, drawn by six black horses. At 10.30 am, all church bells of Boulogne tolled; the massed trumpets of French cavalry and bugles of French infantry played the Aux Champs (the French "Last Post").^[1] Then, the mile-long procession - led by one thousand French schoolchildren and with a division of French soldiers forming the guard of honour - made its way down to the harbour.^[1] Last Post is a bugle call used at military funerals and ceremonies commemorating those who have fallen in war. ...

At the quayside, Marshal Foch saluted the casket before it was carried up the gangway of the destroyer, HMS Verdun, and piped aboard with an admiral's call. The Verdun slipped anchor just before noon and was joined by an escort of six battleships.^[1] As the flotilla carrying the casket closed on Dover Castle it received a 19 gun Field Marshal's salute. It was landed at Dover Maritime Railway Station at the Western Docks on 10 November, from where it was taken to Victoria Station, where it arrived at platform 8 at 8.32 pm that evening and remained for the night of the 10th - at both locations there is a plaque. Every year on 11 November there is a small Remembrance service at Victoria Station between platforms 8 and 9. Ferdinand Foch OM GCB (October 2, 1851 – March 20, 1929) was a French soldier, military theorist, and writer credited with possessing the most original and subtle mind in the French Army in the early 20th century. ... Dover Castle is situated at Dover, Kent and has been described as the Key to England due to its defensive significance throughout history. ... Note: This article is about the military usage of the word marshal. For other usages, see the end of this article. ... A 1945 Ordnance Survey of Dover showing the location of Dover Priory and Dover Marine A list of former and current railway stations in Dover, England. ... is the 314th day of the year (315th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Victoria station in London is a London Underground and National Rail station in the City of Westminster. ... is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

On the morning of 11 November 1920 the casket was loaded onto a gun carriage of the Royal Horse Artillery and drawn by six horses through immense and silent crowds. The route followed was Hyde Park Corner, The Mall, and to Whitehall where the Cenotaph was unveiled by King George V. The cortège was then followed by the King, Royal Family and ministers of state to Westminster Abbey, where the casket was borne into the West Nave of the Abbey flanked by a guard of honour of one hundred recipients of the Victoria Cross. is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) is a corps in the British Army. ... Hyde Park Corner is a place in London, England, at the south-east corner of Hyde Park. ... The Mall, looking towards Buckingham Palace The Mall (/mæl/) in London is the road running from Buckingham Palace at its western end to Admiralty Arch and on to Trafalgar Square at its eastern end, where it crosses Spring Gardens, which was where the Metropolitan Board of Works and for... Whitehall, London, looking south towards the Houses of Parliament. ... The Cenotaph, London A ceremony at the Cenotaph, London, on Sunday 12th June 2005, remembering Irish war dead Memorial Cenotaph, Hiroshima, Japan A cenotaph is a tomb or a monument erected in honor of a person or group of persons whose remains are elsewhere. ... Members of the Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after the Trooping the Colour ceremony The British Royal Family is shared between the Commonwealth Realms; this article focuses on the perspective of United Kingdom. ... For other uses, see Victoria Cross (disambiguation). ...

The guests of honour were a little group of about one hundred women.^[1] They had been chosen because they had each lost their husband and all their sons in the war.^[1] "Every woman so bereft who applied for a place got it".^[1]

The coffin was then interred in the far western end of the nave, only a few feet from the entrance, with soil from each of the main battlefields and covered with a silk pall. The Armed Services then stood as honour guard as tens of thousands of mourners filed past. The ceremony appears to have served as a form of catharsis for collective mourning on a scale not previously known.^[1]

The grave was then capped with a black Belgium marble stone (the only tombstone in the Abbey on which it is forbidden to walk) featuring this inscription, composed by Dean Ryle, Dean of Westminster, engraved with brass from melted down wartime ammunition: Tombstone most commonly means a headstone marking the grave of a deceased person. ... Herbert Edward Ryle (1856 - 1925), was a distinguished Old Testament scholar. ... The Abbey at night, from Deans Yard. ...

Around the main inscription are four texts:

Later history

A year later, the Warrior was conferred the US Medal of Honor on 17 October 1921, from the hand of General Pershing; it hangs on a pillar near to his burial site. (Later, on 11 November 1921, the U.S. Unknown Soldier was reciprocally awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest award for gallantry.) The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States. ... is the 290th day of the year (291st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... John Joseph Black Jack Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948) was an officer in the United States Army. ... is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... Sailor and girl at the Tomb of the Unknowns, May 1943 The Tomb of the Unknowns (also known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, although it has never been officially named) is a monument in Arlington National Cemetery, United States dedicated to the American soldiers who have died without... For other uses, see Victoria Cross (disambiguation). ...

When Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon married the future King George VI on 26 April 1923, she laid her bouquet at the Tomb on her way into the Abbey, as a tribute to her brother Fergus who had died at the Battle of Loos in 1915.^[1] The gesture has since been copied by every royal bride married at the Abbey, though on the way back from the altar rather than to it. Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth (Elizabeth Angela Marguerite; 4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002), was the Queen Consort of King George VI of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 1936 until his death in 1952. ... George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 11 December 1936 until his death. ... is the 116th day of the year (117th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Battle of Loos was one of the major British offensives mounted on the Western Front in 1915 during World War I. The battle was the British component of the combined Anglo-French offensive known as the Second Battle of Artois. ...

When Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi ideologist, visited Britain on a diplomatic mission in 1933 he laid a wreath with a Swastika on it at the tomb. A British war veteran threw it into the Thames.^[2]   (January 12, 1893 Reval (nowadays Tallinn) – October 16, 1946) was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi party, who later held several important posts in the Nazi government. ...

Before she died in 2002, the Queen Mother expressed the wish for her wreath to be placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. Her daughter the Queen laid the wreath the day after the funeral. ^[3] Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor; born 21 April 1926) is Queen of sixteen sovereign states, holding each crown and title equally. ...

The British Unknown Warrior came 76th in the 100 Great Britons poll. (Redirected from 100 Great Britons) In 2002, the BBC conducted a vote to discover the 100 Greatest Britons of all time. ...

Other nations

Several other nations would follow the example and have their own Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The Landsoldaten (foot soldier) statue in Fredericia, Denmark Throughout history, many soldiers have died in numerous wars without their remains being identified. ...

References

See also

• Tower Hill Memorial

Tower Hill Memorial, corridor The Tower Hill Memorial is a national war memorial on the south side of Trinity Square Gardens, just to the north of the Tower of London. ...

External links

• The Unknown Warrior (Westminster Abbey)