The Unknown Warrior facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Unknown Warrior |
|
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | |
The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior
|
|
| For the unknown war dead, wherever they fell | |
| Unveiled | 11 November 1920 |
| Location | 51°29′58″N 0°7′39″W / 51.49944°N 0.12750°W near London, England
|
The Unknown Warrior is a soldier from the British Empire whose name is not known. He died on the Western Front during World War I. He is buried in a special grave at Westminster Abbey, which is also called the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior.
He was given a very important state funeral and buried on 11 November 1920. At the same time, a similar unknown soldier was buried in France at the Arc de Triomphe. These two graves were the first of their kind. They were the first to honor all the unknown soldiers who died in World War I.
The buried person could be from the army, navy, or air force. This is why the name "Warrior" is used instead of "Soldier". They could also be from any part of the British Empire at that time. However, it is believed he was most likely a soldier from the British Isles.
Contents
History of the Unknown Warrior
How the Idea Started
The idea for the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior came from Reverend David Railton in 1916. He was a priest working with the army on the Western Front. He saw a simple grave with a rough cross that said, "An Unknown British Soldier."
In 1920, he wrote to Herbert Ryle, the head of Westminster Abbey. He suggested that an unknown British soldier from the battlefields in France should be buried with great honor in the Abbey. This would represent the many hundreds of thousands of soldiers from the British Empire who had died. The idea was strongly supported by the Abbey's head and the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George. Lloyd George later said that the Unknown Warrior's grave showed the nation's sadness for individuals.
Choosing and Bringing the Warrior Home
Lord Curzon was in charge of the plans. He helped arrange the service and the burial place. Bodies were carefully dug up from different battlefields. They were taken to a chapel in Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise, France, on the night of 8 November 1920.
Two officers went into the chapel alone. They placed the remains into four plain coffins, each covered by a British flag. The officers did not know which battlefield each soldier came from. One officer, Brigadier Wyatt, closed his eyes and touched one of the coffins. This coffin was chosen. The other soldiers were then reburied.
The chosen coffin stayed at the chapel overnight. On the afternoon of 9 November, it was moved under guard to a medieval castle in Boulogne. The castle library was made into a special room for the coffin. French soldiers stood guard all night.
The next morning, the coffin was placed into a special casket. This casket was made from oak trees from Hampton Court Palace. It had iron bands around it. A 16th-century sword, chosen by King George V himself, was placed on top. An iron shield on the casket said: "A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914–1918 for King and Country."
The casket was then put on a French military wagon pulled by six black horses. At 10:30 a.m., all the church bells in Boulogne rang. French trumpets played a special tune. A long procession, led by 1,000 schoolchildren and French troops, went down to the harbor.
At the harbor, Marshal Foch saluted the casket. It was then carried onto the destroyer ship, HMS Verdun. The Verdun left just before noon, joined by six other destroyers. As the ships neared Dover Castle, they received a 19-gun salute. The coffin was brought ashore at Dover Marine Railway Station on 10 November.
The body of the Unknown Warrior was taken to London by train. The train car, called No.132, had also carried the bodies of Edith Cavell and Charles Fryatt. This train car is now kept safe. The train arrived at Victoria Station at 8:32 p.m. and stayed there overnight. A plaque marks the spot where it rested. Every year on 10 November, a small service is held there.
The Burial Ceremony
The Unknown Warrior was given a full state funeral. This was the only time such an honor was given to an unknown person or a group of people. On the morning of 11 November 1920, the casket was placed on a gun carriage. Six black horses pulled it through huge, silent crowds. Another salute was fired in Hyde Park.
The procession went past Hyde Park Corner and The Mall to Whitehall. There, the Cenotaph, a "symbolic empty tomb," was revealed by King George V. The King, the Royal Family, and government ministers followed the procession to Westminster Abbey. The casket was carried into the Abbey. A guard of honor, made up of 100 people who had received the Victoria Cross, stood by.
Special guests were about 100 women. They had been chosen because each had lost their husband and all their sons in the war. "Every woman so bereft who applied for a place got it."
The coffin was then buried at the far western end of the Abbey's main area. Soil from the main battlefields was placed in the grave. The grave was covered with a silk cloth. Soldiers stood guard as thousands of people walked silently past. This ceremony helped many people deal with their sadness from the war.
The grave was then covered with a black Belgian marble stone. This is the only tombstone in the Abbey that people are not allowed to walk on. The inscription was written by Herbert Edward Ryle, the head of Westminster. It was made with brass from melted-down 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 nationThus 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 worldThey buried him among the kings because he
Had done good toward God and toward
His house
The last sentence is from a Bible story. It means he was buried with kings because he had done good for God and his country.
Around the main words are four quotes from the New Testament (part of the Bible):
- "The Lord knoweth them that are his" (top; 2 Timothy 2:19)
- "Unknown and yet well known, dying and behold we live" (side; 2 Corinthians 6:9)
- "Greater love hath no man than this" (side; John 15:13)
- "In Christ shall all be made alive" (base; 1 Corinthians 15:22)
After the Burial
On 17 October 1921, the Unknown Warrior received the United States' highest award for bravery, the Medal of Honor. General John Pershing presented it. The medal now hangs near the tomb. On 11 November 1921, the American Unknown Soldier was given the Victoria Cross in return.
When Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (who later became Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother) married Prince Albert (who became King George VI) on 26 April 1923, she placed her wedding flowers at the Tomb. This was a tribute to her brother Fergus, who had died in 1915 during the war.
Today, royal brides who marry at the Abbey or elsewhere place their bouquets on the tomb the day after their wedding. The tomb was also the only one not covered by a special red carpet for the wedding of the Duke of York and Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.
Before she died in 2002, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother wanted her wreath to be placed on the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. Her daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, placed the wreath the day after the funeral.
The British Unknown Warrior was ranked 76th in the "100 Great Britons" poll. A new steam locomotive, LMS Patriot Class 5551 The Unknown Warrior, is being built. This new train will be a national memorial. Work on it started in 2008 and is still going on.
Leaders from over 70 countries have placed wreaths at the Tomb to remember the Unknown Warrior.
On the 100th anniversary of the burial, a ceremony was held at the Abbey. Prince Charles (now King Charles III), his wife Camilla, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson were there. The ceremony was shown live on TV. The Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, read a new poem. Queen Elizabeth II also placed a wreath at the tomb.
Related Memorials
Since 1920, three other memorials have been built for the Unknown Warrior:
- St. Pol, France: This is where the Unknown Warrior was chosen.
- Dover harbor: This is where the Unknown Warrior was brought ashore in England.
- Victoria Station, London: This is where the Unknown Warrior rested before his burial on 11 November.
