Hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers during WWI were killed in action, many of whom returned to their native lands and laid to rest. But there were those who had died but couldn’t be identified, and so they were referred to as “unknown soldiers”.
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In 1916, David Railton, a chaplain serving in the British Army, after finishing the funeral rites of a fellow soldier, had found a solitary grave with the inscription, “An Unknown British Soldier of the Black Watch”. From this came the idea of holding a ceremony for all the unknown soldiers during WWI.
He had suggested it to Rev. Herbert Ryle, the Dean of Westminster Abbey, and everything was quickly sorted out, with the Prime Minister and King George V giving approval on October 4th. Brigadier General Louis Wyatt was in charge of making it happen. So, he gave instructions for four unknown soldiers to be exhumed, one each from Somme, Aisne, Arras, and Ypres.
These were brought to St. Pol, and Wyatt randomly selected one among them, with the rest being reburied. The body was placed in a specially-designed oak coffin, and brought to London by train.
On Armistice Day, November 11, 1920, the Unknown Warrior was honored by the King and later brought to Westminster Abbey to be buried.
Many questions still surround the mystery of the unknown warrior such as the selection process, the number of soldiers, the identity of the soldier being known, and the place of interment of the remaining bodies.
But what’s important is that every year on November 11th, the relatives of the 517,773 unknown soldiers may believe that the Unknown Warrior could be their lost friend, lover, husband, father, brother, or son.
(Image credit: Horace Nicholls/Wikimedia Commons)
Source: neatorama