Wikipedia

The Unknown Warrior

For the steam locomotive, seeLMS Patriot Class 5551The Unknown Warrior.
Not to be confused withUnknown Soldier.

The Unknown Warrioris an unidentified member of theBritish Imperialarmed forces who died on thewestern frontduring theFirst World War.He is interred in a grave atWestminster Abbey,also known as theTomb of the Unknown Warrior.

The Unknown Warrior
United Kingdom
The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior
For the unknown war dead, wherever they fell
Unveiled11 November 1920
Location51°29′58″N0°7′39″W/ 51.49944°N 0.12750°W/51.49944; -0.12750
near
London, England

He was given astate funeraland buried on 11 November 1920, simultaneously with a similar interment of aFrench unknown soldierat theArc de Triomphein France, making both graves the first examples of atomb of the unknown soldier,and the first to honour the unknown dead of the First World War.

Officially, the buried man may be from the army, navy or airforce (hence the namewarriorinstead ofsoldier) and from any part of theBritish Empireat the time.[1]However, theNational Army Museumnotes that the UK Government had also previously confirmed that the interred was a soldier and that he was most likely from the British Isles, not the Empire.[2]

History

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Origins

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The coffin of the Unknown Warrior in state in the Abbey in 1920, before burial.

The idea of a Tomb of the Unknown Warrior was first conceived in 1916 by the ReverendDavid Railton,who, while serving as anarmy chaplainon theWestern Front,had seen a grave marked by a rough cross, which bore the pencil-written legend 'An Unknown British Soldier'.[3]

He wrote to thedean of Westminster,Herbert Ryle,in 1920 proposing that an unidentifiedBritishsoldier from the battlefields in France be buried with due ceremony in Westminster Abbey "amongst the kings" to represent the many hundreds of thousands ofEmpiredead. The idea was strongly supported by the dean and the prime minister,David Lloyd George,[3]who later wrote "The Cenotaphis the token of our mourning as a nation; the Grave of the Unknown Warrior is the token of our mourning as individuals ".[4]

Selection, arrival and ceremony

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Burial of The Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, with King George V in attendance, 1920.

Arrangements were placed in the hands ofLord Curzon of Kedlestonwho prepared in committee the service and location. Suitable remains were exhumed from various battlefields and brought to the chapel atSaint-Pol-sur-TernoisenearArras,France, on the night of 8 November 1920. The bodies were received by the Reverend George Kendall OBE. Brigadier L.J. Wyatt and Lieutenant Colonel E.A.S. Gell of the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries went into the chapel alone. The remains were then placed in four plain coffins each covered by Union Flags: the two officers did not know from which battlefield any individual soldier had come. Brigadier Wyatt with closed eyes rested his hand on one of the coffins. The other soldiers were then taken away for reburial by Kendall.

The coffin of the unknown warrior then stayed at the chapel overnight and on the afternoon of 9 November, it was transferred under guard and escorted by Kendall, with troops lining the route, from St Pol to the medieval castle within the ancient citadel atBoulogne.For the occasion, the castle library was transformed into achapelle ardente:a company from the French8th Infantry Regiment,recently awarded theLégion d'Honneuren masse,[5]stood vigil overnight.[6]

The following morning, two undertakers entered the castle library and placed the coffin into a casket of the oak timbers of trees fromHampton Court Palace.[6]The casket was banded with iron, and a 16th-century sword chosen byKing George Vpersonally 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'.[6]

The casket was then placed onto a French military wagon, drawn by six black horses. At 10:30 a.m., all the church bells of Boulogne tolled; the massed trumpets of the French cavalry and the bugles of the French infantry playedAux Champs(the French "Last Post").[6]Then, the mile-long procession—led by 1,000 local schoolchildren and escorted by a division of French troops—made its way down to the harbour.[6]

A plaque at Victoria Station marking site of the arrival of the coffin on 10 November.

At the quayside,Marshal Fochsaluted the casket before it was carried up the gangway of the destroyer,HMSVerdun,andpipedaboard with an admiral's call. TheVerdunslipped its moorings just before noon and was joined by an escort of six destroyers (HMSWitherington,HMSWanderer,HMSWhitshed,HMSWivern,HMSWolverine,andHMSVeteran).[7]As the flotilla carrying the casket closed onDover Castleit received a19-gunField Marshal's salute. It was landed atDover Marine Railway Stationat the Western Docks on 10 November. The body of the Unknown Warrior was carried to London inSouth Eastern and Chatham RailwayGeneral Utility VanNo.132,which had previously carried the bodies ofEdith CavellandCharles Fryatt.The van has beenpreservedby theKent and East Sussex Railway.[8]The train went toVictoria Station,where it arrived at platform 8 at 8:32 p.m. that evening and remained overnight. A plaque marking the site was unveiled on 10 November 1998.[9]Every year on the same date, a small Remembrance service, organised byThe Western Front Association,takes place between platforms 8 and 9.[10]

The Unknown Warrior was granted a fullstate funeral,[11]the only time that this honour has been bestowed on an anonymous person or a representative of a whole group of people.[12]On the morning of 11 November 1920, the casket was placed onto a gun carriage of theRoyal Horse Artillery(N Battery RHA) and drawn by six black horses through immense and silent crowds. As the cortege set off, a further Field Marshal's salute was fired inHyde Park.[13]The route followed wasHyde Park Corner,The Mall,and toWhitehallwherethe Cenotaph,a "symbolic empty tomb",[14]was unveiled by KingGeorge V.The cortège was then followed by The King, theRoyal Familyand 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 100 recipients of theVictoria Cross.[1]The guests of honour were a group of about 100 women.[6]They had been chosen because they had each lost their husband and all their sons in the war.[6]"Every woman so bereft who applied for a place got it."[6]

The coffin was then interred in the far western end of the Nave, only a few feet from the entrance, in soil brought from each of the main battlefields, and covered with a silk pall. Servicemen from the armed forces stood guard as tens of thousands of mourners filed silently past. The ceremony appears to have served as a form of catharsis for collective mourning on a scale not previously known.[6]

The grave was then capped with a black Belgian marble stone (the onlytombstonein the Abbey on which it is forbidden to walk) featuring this inscription, composed byHerbert Edward Ryle,Dean of Westminster, engraved with brass from melted down wartime ammunition.[15]

Beneath this stone rests the body
Of a British warrior
Unknown by name or rank
Brought from France to lie among
The most illustrious of the land
And buried here on Armistice Day
11 Nov: 1920, in the presence of
His Majesty King George V
His Ministers of State
The Chiefs of his forces
And a vast concourse of the nation

Thus are commemorated the many
Multitudes who during the Great
War of 1914 – 1918 gave the most that
Man can give life itself
For God
For King and country
For loved ones home and empire
For the sacred cause of justice and
The freedom of the world

They buried him among the kings because he
Had done good toward God and toward
His house

This last sentence is a paraphrase of2 Chronicles24:16, taken from the story of Jehoiada: "And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God, and toward his house."

Around the main inscription are fourNew Testamentquotations:

  • The Lord knoweth them that are his (top;2 Timothy2:19)
  • Unknown and yet well known, dying and behold we live (side;2 Corinthians6:9)
  • Greater love hath no man than this (side;John15:13)
  • In Christ shall all be made alive (base;1 Corinthians15:22)

Later history

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TheCavell Van- the van in which the body of the Unknown Warrior was carried - before restoration in 2010.
Replica coffin of the Unknown Warrior; interior of the Cavell Van, Bodiam.

A year later, on 17 October 1921, the unknown warrior was given the United States' highest award for valour, theMedal of Honor,from the hand ofGeneral John Pershing;it hangs on a pillar close to the tomb.[16]On 11 November 1921, the AmericanUnknown Soldierwas reciprocally awarded the Victoria Cross.[17]

When Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (laterQueen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) married Prince Albert, Duke of York (who becameKing George VI) on 26 April 1923, she laid her bouquet at the Tomb on her way into the Abbey, as a tribute to her brotherFerguswho had died at theBattle of Loosin 1915 (and whose name was then listed among those of the missing on theLoos Memorial,although in 2012 a new headstone was erected in the Quarry Cemetery, Vermelles).[6][18][19]Royal brides married at the Abbey or elsewhere[20]now have their bouquets laid on the tomb the day after the wedding and all of the official wedding photographs have been taken.[21][22]It is also the only tomb not to have been covered by a special red carpet for the wedding of the Duke of York and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.[21]

Before she died in 2002, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother expressed the wish for her wreath to be placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. Her daughter, QueenElizabeth II,laid the wreath the day after thefuneral.[23]

The British Unknown Warrior came 76th in the100 Great Britonspoll.[24]A new steam locomotive,LMS Patriot Class 5551The Unknown Warrior,is being constructed by a charitable project, the LMS-Patriot Project, atTyseley Locomotive Works.The new locomotive is destined to be the new National Memorial Engine, continuing the Remembrance tradition of the Patriot class steam locomotive and its predecessors. A public appeal to build the locomotive was launched in 2008 and work continues today.[25]

Heads of state from over 70 countries have lain wreaths in memoriam of the Unknown Warrior.[26]

On the 100th anniversary of the interment, a ceremony attended by Prince Charles (laterCharles III), his wifeCamilla,and the then prime minister,Boris Johnson,was held at the Abbey and broadcast live to the nation by theBBC.ThePoet Laureate,Simon Armitage,read a newly written poem "The Bed".[27][28]Queen Elizabeth II also laid a wreath at the tomb.[29]

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There have been three related memorials erected since 1920 for the Unknown Warrior:

  • St. Pol where the Unknown Warrior was selected[30]
  • Dover harbour at the cruise terminal where the Unknown Warrior was brought ashore[31]
  • Victoria Station,London, where the Unknown Warrior rested before his burial on 11 November[32]

References

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Citations

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  1. ^ab"Unknown Warrior".Commemorations.Westminster Abbey.Retrieved14 July2024.
  2. ^"The mysterious story of the Unknown Warrior".National Army Museum.Retrieved14 July2024.
  3. ^abAllingham, Henry; Goodwin, Dennis (2011).Kitchener's Last Volunteer: The Life of Henry Allingham, the Oldest Surviving Veteran of the Great War.Random House. p. 132.
  4. ^Bryan, Rachel (February 2021)."Unlived Lives, Imaginary Widowhood and Elizabeth Bowen'sA World of Love".The Review of English Studies.72(303): 129–146.doi:10.1093/res/hgaa043.
  5. ^"Collectivité décorées de la Légion d'honneur, 8eme régiment d'infanterie de ligne"(in French). France-Phaleristique. Archived fromthe originalon 5 January 2010.
  6. ^abcdefghijHanson,Chapters 23 & 24
  7. ^Michael Gavaghan in The Story of the Unknown Warrior: 11 November 1920 (London: M. and L. Publications, 1995)
  8. ^"Bid to save WWI heroes' carriage".BBC News. 3 December 2009.Retrieved3 December2009.
  9. ^"Memorial – Arrival of the body of the Unknown Warrior at Victoria Railway Station".iwm.org.uk.Imperial War Museum.Retrieved5 October2022.
  10. ^"Buried Among Kings: The Story of the Unknown Warrior".nam.ac.uk.National Army Museum.Retrieved5 October2022.
  11. ^Hall 2012, p. 91
  12. ^Range 2016, pp. 289–290
  13. ^Memorial Services (November 11th) Committee,Maurice Hankey,Cabinet Office Papers, 1915–1978,The National Archives.(CAB 24/114).
  14. ^Holmes,p. 630
  15. ^Daniel, Julie; Daniel, Peter."The Unknown Warrior: A Dover Tale"(PDF).The Dover War Memorial Project.Retrieved20 February2022.
  16. ^"Unknown Warrior".Westminster Abbey.Retrieved19 September2021.General Pershing, on behalf of the United States of America, conferred the Congressional Medal of Honor on the Unknown Warrior on 17th October 1921 and this now hangs in a frame on a pillar near the grave.
  17. ^"Victoria Cross Award to America's Unknown;War Secretary Evans Makes the Announcement at an Official Dinner to Pershing ",The New York Times,18 October 1921, p. 5
  18. ^"Casualty Details: Bowes-Lyon, The Hon Fergus".Commonwealth War Graves Commission.Retrieved16 August2012.
  19. ^"Final resting place of Queen's uncle discovered nearly a century after his death".Daily Record.19 August 2012.Retrieved20 August2012.
  20. ^In an act of remembrance, a bouquet of flowers featuring orchids and myrtle - based on Her Majesty’s own wedding bouquet from 1947 - was placed on the grave of the Unknown Warrior. Watch this film to find out why
  21. ^ab"Queen releases 60 wedding facts".BBC News. 18 November 2007.Retrieved18 November2007.
  22. ^Rayment, Sean (1 May 2011)."Royal wedding: Kate Middleton's bridal bouquet placed at Grave of Unknown Warrior".The Daily Telegraph.London.Retrieved1 May2011.
  23. ^"Details of the Queen Mother's funeral".CNN. 7 April 2002.Retrieved25 May2010.
  24. ^Cooper, John (2002).Great Britons.London: National Portrait Gallery. p. 9.ISBN1855145073.
  25. ^"The LMS Patriot Project".The LMS-Patriot Company Ltd.Retrieved24 October2014.
  26. ^"Barack Obama lays memorial wreath at Westminster Abbey".The Daily Telegraph.London. 24 May 2011. Archived fromthe originalon 26 May 2011.
  27. ^"Armistice Day: Centenary of Unknown Warrior burial marked".BBC News.11 November 2020.Retrieved17 November2020.
  28. ^Armitage, Simon (11 November 2020)."The Bed"(PDF).Retrieved17 November2020.
  29. ^"Queen wears face mask as she marks Unknown Warrior centenary".BBC News.7 November 2020.Retrieved28 November2022.
  30. ^"British Unknown Warrior".Ternois Tourisme.Retrieved9 November2017.
  31. ^"Unknown Warrior Dover".War Memorials Online.Retrieved9 November2017.
  32. ^"Unknown Warrior Victoria Railway Station Plaque".Imperial War Memorials.Retrieved9 November2017.

Works cited

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Further reading

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  • Gavaghan, Michael.The Story of the British Unknown Warrior.1995. ISBN 978-0952446408
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