The Unknown Warrior

 

11^th November 2020, marks the 99^th anniversary of funeral the American Unknown Solider, buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia.  The Unknown Soldier was the awarded a posthumously Victoria Cross.  The Unknown Soldier was brought back from France and interred in the Tomb of the Unknown Solider. 

May 1921, Memorial Day, four unknown servicemen were exhumed from four American World War One Cemeteries located in France, Aisne-Maine, Meuse-Argonne, Somme and St. Mihiell.  The selected casket was chosen by Sergeant Edward F. Younger at the city hall in Chalone-en-Champagne, on 24^th October 1921.  The chosen casket was transport back to America on board the USS Olympia, and other three were interred at Meuse Argonne Cemetery.

The Unknown Solider lay in State in Capitol Rotunda, until Armistice Day.  President Warren G. Harding officiated the interment at Arlington National Cemetery.  During the cemetery, Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Beatty, on behalf of King George V, awarded the Victoria Cross.  General of the Armies John Pershing presented the U.S. Medal of Honor during March, also the Boy Scots of America presented the Silver Buffalo Award.

11^th November 2020 marks the 100^th anniversary of the burial of the Unknown Warrior, at Westminster Abbey.  The Unknown Warrior was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart.

The ideal of the of the Unknown Warrior, was first conceived during 1916, by an army chaplain serving on the Western Front, Reverend David Railton.

During 1920, Railton wrote to the Dean of Westminster prosing that an unknown British solider from the battlefield should be buried in Westminster Abbey.  The Dean and Prime Minster David Lloyd George supposed the idea.

The arrangement was left under the guidance of George Curzon, Lord Curzon of Kedleeston who formed a committee for the service and location.  On the night of the 7^th November 1920, suitable remains were exhumed from four various battlefields and brought to a chapel at Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise, Arras.  The final choice, of the Unknown Warrior was made by Reverend George Kendall OBE, Brigadier L.J. Wyatt and Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquires Lieutenant Colonel E.A.S. Gell, who received the bodies. 

The bodies were placed in four plain coffins and a Union Jack was placed over. With the chosen coffin picked, the other three were taken away for reburial by Reverend Kendall.

During the night of the 7^th till the afternoon of the 8^th the coffin, stayed in the chapel.  During the afternoon, under guard and escorted by Kendall, the coffin, was transferred from Ste Pol, to the medieval castle within the ancient citadel, Boulogne. Troops lined the route.  The castle library was used as the chapelle ardente.  The overnight vigil was performed by the French 8^th Infantry Regiment, having been awarded the Legion d’Honour.

The following day, two undertakers who undertook the task of placing the coffin into a casket of oak timbers, of trees from Hampton Court. The casket was then banded with iron and King George chose a medieval crusader’s sword, from the Royal Collection.  An iron shield with the inscription “A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914-1918 from King and Country” affixed on the top of casket.

The casket then placed on a French military wagon been drawn by six black horses. The church bells of Boulogne tolled at 10.30, along with the massed trumpets of the French Calvary and the bugles of the French infantry playing the French Last Post Aux Champs.  The procession the harbour having been a mile long was led by thousand French children and lined by French troops.

Marshal Foch saluted the casket at the harbour before it carried up the gangway of the HMS Verdun and piped abroad with an admiral’s call. Just before noon, the HMS Verdun, slipped away and was added under the escort of six battleships.  Nearing Dover Castle, it received a 19-gun Field Marshal’s statue.  HMSVerdun landed at Dover Marine Railway Station at the Western Docks, on the 10^th November. The casket was carried Van No.132, of South Eastern and Chatham Railway General Utility.  The van, having carried the coffins of Edith Cavell and Charles Fryatt.  

Arriving at 8.32pm at Platform 8, Victoria Station.  The casket remained on board overnight.

The following morning, 11^th November, the casket was placed on a gun carriage, of the Royal Horse Artillery, drawn by six horse through the immense and silent crowds.  The cortege set off, at Hyde Park a Field Marshal’s salute was fired. The route followed, Hyde Park Corner, The Mall, and to Whitehall, to the Cenotaph.  King George V had just unveiled the Cenotaph.  The cortege was then followed by King George V, the Royal Family and minister of state to Westminster.  The casket arrived at the West Nave of the Abbey, having been flanked by 100 recipients of the Victoria Cross as guard of honour.

The guest of honour were 100 women who had been chosen having lost a husband of all their sons in the war.

The coffin having been interred in the western end of the Nave, soil was also brought over from the main battlefields and covered the coffin. 

A black Belgian marble stone capped the grave, feature the inscription written by Herbert Edward Ryle, Dean of Westminster.  Engraved brass melted down from wartime ammunition.   

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