Buried among the kings

In August 1920 the Reverend David Railton, who had served as an army chaplain in France during the First World War, wrote to the Dean of Westminster with a simple but unprecedented suggestion.

4 minute read

Recalling a rough wooden cross in a French garden on which had been written ‘An Unknown British Soldier’, and reflecting on the anguish of bereaved families who would never know the final resting place of loved ones killed in action, he asked the Dean, Dr Herbert Ryle, to consider burying the body of one such ‘unknown comrade’ in Westminster Abbey.

Battlefield grave

The grave and simple wooden marker of an unknown British soldier at Thiepval, seen in September 1916. The cross reads 'R.I.P. In Memory of an Unknown British Soldier Found & Buried 25.11.15'

Image: Imperial War Museum Q 1540

King George V, to whom Dean Ryle presented the idea, was initially cautious, concerned that such an act might re-open bitter wounds. But he was soon persuaded of the merits of the idea by the Prime Minister Lloyd George and it was agreed that the burial of an ‘Unknown Warrior’ would take place in Westminster Abbey on the approaching Armistice Day, immediately after the unveiling of the Cenotaph. Once announced, the idea quickly caught the imagination of both the public and the press.

In great secrecy several unidentifiable bodies were retrieved from battle sites in northern France and taken to army headquarters at St Pol where they were placed in a chapel, each covered with a Union Flag. At midnight on 7 November, Brigadier General L.J. Wyatt, the General Officer Commanding troops in France and Flanders, entered the chapel and chose a body at random. Though the details of these procedures were not revealed at the time, official statements stressed the care that had been taken to ensure that the identity of the Unknown Warrior would not be known. He might be a soldier, sailor, or airman and might equally be from the forces of the United Kingdom, the Dominions, or one of the British colonial territories.

Western Front

A team of stretcher bearers struggle through deep mud to carry a wounded man to safety near Boesinghe on 1 August 1917 during the Third Battle of Ypres.

Image: Imperial War Museum Q 5935

The selected body was placed in a specially-made coffin which had rested overnight in Westminster Abbey before being taken to France. From St Pol the cortege travelled with full military ceremonial to the quayside at Boulogne where the coffin was transferred to HMS Verdun for the voyage home. From Dover a train took the coffin to London where it arrived on the evening of 10 November at Victoria Station and rested overnight with a military guard.

Poignant moment

The Warrior's coffin rests in the Abbey before being taken to France for the final voyage home.

On the morning of Armistice Day the coffin was transferred to a horse-drawn gun carriage which proceeded via the Mall and Admiralty Arch to Whitehall where the King placed a wreath of red roses and bay leaves on the coffin.

A King's tribute

George V's handwritten card which was placed on the coffin. It reads: 'In proud memory of those warriors who died unknown in the Great War. Unknown, and yest well-known, as dying, and behold they live'.

After the Cenotaph had been unveiled the procession continued to the Abbey, entering by the north transept, with the King following as chief mourner, together with the Prince of Wales, the Prime Minister, the Speaker of the House of Commons and members of the Government.

The congregation of around a thousand consisted mostly of widows and mothers who had gained places by ballot. Both houses of Parliament had agreed to forgo their own attendance so that those perceived to have the greatest need of mourning might be present in large numbers. One hundred holders of the Victoria Cross lined the nave as the procession approached the grave, and as the Abbey choir sang the hymn ‘Lead, kindly light’ the Warrior was lowered into the ground and the King sprinkled earth from a Flanders battlefield onto his coffin. Reveille was sounded in answer to the Last Post heard at the Cenotaph earlier.

The grave

The Warrior's grave in the Abbey following the funeral service on 11 November 1920.

The immense power of David Railton’s simple idea became evident in the following days as thousands of mourners filed by the Grave. Stories abounded of the comfort derived from the possibility, often transformed into an individual conviction, that here were the remains of a much-mourned husband, father or son. One of the Abbey’s own choristers at the service, Bill Wolferstan, later recalled how he had wondered if the Warrior might be his elder brother.

Paying respects

An estimated 1,250,000 people visited the Abbey to see the grave in the week following the funeral.

A week after the burial the grave was filled with earth brought from France and was covered by a simple inscribed gravestone, replaced the following year by the present black marble gravestone, with its longer inscription.

Lasting tribute

The Belgian marble gravestone which replaced the original stone in 1921. The inscription was composed by Dean Ryle.

On Armistice Day 1921, the Padre’s Flag - David Railton's Union Flag which had served as both altar cloth and shroud at the Front, and which had covered the Warrior’s coffin at the funeral - was presented to be hung close by the Grave. A few weeks earlier had come the award of the Congressional Medal of Honor of the United States of America, which hangs on a nearby pillar.

The Padre's flag

The Reverend David Railton's flag hangs in St George's Chapel, close to the grave

In the years since the end of the First World War, many other nations have paid a similar honour to the fallen of their wars, often within architectural or landscaped settings designed specially for that purpose.

Uniquely it appears, the British Unknown Warrior was buried within an ancient place of prayer, in a church which lies at the heart of both national life and national memory.

They buried him among the Kings because he had done good toward God and toward his house.

Centenary commemorations

A century on from the Warrior's burial, the national paused once again to remember the sacrifice of all those lost fighting in the two World Wars and in the conflicts since.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II made a private visit to the Abbey to pay her own tribute and lay flowers on the Warrior's grave.

Honouring the sacrifice

HM Queen Elizabeth II pays a personal tribute at the Warrior's grave, a century on

A week later, on 11th November 2020, Their Majesties The King and Queen - the then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall - attended a special centenary service in the Abbey. The service was conducted by the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr David Hoyle, who said in his bidding:

We gather on this holy ground a hundred years after a man, unknown by name or rank, was laid to his final rest in this royal house. The Abbey was crowded that day and so were the surrounding streets. In the aftermath of a great and terrible war a nation gathered in silence, in shock and grief. Here, and on that day, all thoughts of sacrifice, of victory, and of nation gave way, at this graveside, as great crowds acknowledged a very human loss.

This grave, on which no foot falls, has since become a place of pilgrimage, a place of honour, and a place where first citizens and very ordinary citizens come to stand in silence, because here words fail us. Here we remember, here we dare to hope, and here we pledge ourselves to reconciliation.

On this day of armistice and on this centenary, we gladly recommit ourselves to the duty of remembrance. We will never forget. We pray for all victims of conflict and for those who grieve over them. We pray that we may know peace and be peacemakers. We pray for the coming of that kingdom where we will all be named and known, all forgiven, and all redeemed. We pray, confident that he and we are known unto God.