O
O.C.
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The Unknown Soldier is still the greatest mystery of the Great War. Who is he? Where actually was he found? Who was responsible for the idea of the exhumation and the solemn procession through the London streets together with the impressive burial in Westminster Abbey?
Few people to-day realise that there were actually six bodies of soldiers dug up from nameless graves in order that the Unknown Warrior might be selected.
The Rev. G. Kendall, who in the year 1920 was Senior Chaplain to the 63rd Naval Division, was placed in charge of these exhumations. He has since related the measures taken by the authorities to ensure that no one should even guess the identity of the body which rests to-day in the Abbey.
Bodies, he says, were taken from unknown graves on six different sectors of the fighting area Ypres salient, the Marne, Arras, Cambrai, and two points further south. No one knew whose bodies they were neither whether they were those of humble soldiers or men of higher rank, nor whether they were soldiers, sailors, or airmen.
Each of the six bodies was placed in a coffin, each coffin being of identical size and pattern. The coffins were then placed in a row in a hut, each being covered with a Union Jack. The hut door was then locked, and on the following morning a general officer, who had not seen the arrival of the cortege or any of the coffins before, was asked to unlock the hut, enter and place his hand on one coffin. This he did, and the coffin he touched contained the body of the Unknown Warrior. The other five bodies were reburied.
Of the procession of the Unknown Warrior back to England, the newspapers of November, 1920, give us details of the solemnity and impressive-ness of the occasion.
Draped with the Union Jack, the coffin was placed on the deck of a British destroyer at Boulogne, carried across the Channel, and, with guns thundering a salute, entered the harbour at Dover. The number of guns fired equalled the salute due to a field-marshal.
Soldiers and sailors carried the coffin reverently to the train, which then steamed towards London. It remained with a guard of honour throughout the night, and the next morning, placed on a gun-carriage, was slowly trundled through the streets towards Whitehall. Huge crowds lined the pavements. Ranks of soldiers, heads bowed with reversed arms, guarded its progress.
The gun-carriage, drawn by six black horses, came to a halt in Whitehall, where the King, attended by his sons and Cabinet Ministers, statesmen, generals, admirals, and all the panoply of troops standing stiffly to attention, solemnly unveiled the Cenotaph, which was to be the centre of all Armistice Day celebrations in the future.
Then the King led the procession towards Westminster Abbey, where an impressive religious service saw the Unknown Warrior lowered into the tomb. Finally, a black marble engraved stone sealed the tomb.
The inscription reads:
Another little known fact is that the Unknown Warrior of Britain was awarded the Victoria Cross, the Congressional Medal of America, and the medals from the other Allies, all symbolic of the bravery of the men who died in the colossal slaughter
Photo, Coffin of the Unknown Warrior onboard the Battleship returning to England
Few people to-day realise that there were actually six bodies of soldiers dug up from nameless graves in order that the Unknown Warrior might be selected.
The Rev. G. Kendall, who in the year 1920 was Senior Chaplain to the 63rd Naval Division, was placed in charge of these exhumations. He has since related the measures taken by the authorities to ensure that no one should even guess the identity of the body which rests to-day in the Abbey.
Bodies, he says, were taken from unknown graves on six different sectors of the fighting area Ypres salient, the Marne, Arras, Cambrai, and two points further south. No one knew whose bodies they were neither whether they were those of humble soldiers or men of higher rank, nor whether they were soldiers, sailors, or airmen.
Each of the six bodies was placed in a coffin, each coffin being of identical size and pattern. The coffins were then placed in a row in a hut, each being covered with a Union Jack. The hut door was then locked, and on the following morning a general officer, who had not seen the arrival of the cortege or any of the coffins before, was asked to unlock the hut, enter and place his hand on one coffin. This he did, and the coffin he touched contained the body of the Unknown Warrior. The other five bodies were reburied.
Of the procession of the Unknown Warrior back to England, the newspapers of November, 1920, give us details of the solemnity and impressive-ness of the occasion.
Draped with the Union Jack, the coffin was placed on the deck of a British destroyer at Boulogne, carried across the Channel, and, with guns thundering a salute, entered the harbour at Dover. The number of guns fired equalled the salute due to a field-marshal.
Soldiers and sailors carried the coffin reverently to the train, which then steamed towards London. It remained with a guard of honour throughout the night, and the next morning, placed on a gun-carriage, was slowly trundled through the streets towards Whitehall. Huge crowds lined the pavements. Ranks of soldiers, heads bowed with reversed arms, guarded its progress.
The gun-carriage, drawn by six black horses, came to a halt in Whitehall, where the King, attended by his sons and Cabinet Ministers, statesmen, generals, admirals, and all the panoply of troops standing stiffly to attention, solemnly unveiled the Cenotaph, which was to be the centre of all Armistice Day celebrations in the future.
Then the King led the procession towards Westminster Abbey, where an impressive religious service saw the Unknown Warrior lowered into the tomb. Finally, a black marble engraved stone sealed the tomb.
The inscription reads:
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
11th 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 Towards God and Toward
His House.
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
11th 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 Towards God and Toward
His House.
Another little known fact is that the Unknown Warrior of Britain was awarded the Victoria Cross, the Congressional Medal of America, and the medals from the other Allies, all symbolic of the bravery of the men who died in the colossal slaughter
Photo, Coffin of the Unknown Warrior onboard the Battleship returning to England
