Westminster Abbey

Unknown Warrior

At the west end of the Nave is the grave of the Unknown Warrior, whose body was brought from France to be buried here on 11 November 1920. The grave, which contains soil from France, is covered by a slab of black Belgian marble from a quarry near Namur. On it is the following inscription, composed by Herbert Ryle, Dean of Westminster:

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

Around the main inscription are four texts: (top) THE LORD KNOWETH THEM THAT ARE HIS, (sides) GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS and UNKNOWN AND YET WELL KNOWN, DYING AND BEHOLD WE LIVE, (base) IN CHRIST SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE.

The idea of such a burial seems first to have come to a chaplain at the Front, the Reverend David Railton (1884-1955), when he noticed in 1916 in a back garden at Armentières, a grave with a rough cross on which were pencilled the words "An Unknown British Soldier". In August 1920 he wrote to Dean Ryle, through whose energies this memorial was carried into effect. The body was chosen from unknown British servicemen exhumed from four battle areas, the Aisne, the Somme, Arras and Ypres. (The number of bodies exhumed varies in different accounts between four and six). The remains were brought to the chapel at St. Pol on the night of 7 November 1920. The General Officer in charge of troops in France and Flanders, Brigadier General L.J.Wyatt, with Colonel Gell, went into the chapel alone, where the bodies on stretchers were covered by Union Jacks. They had no idea from which area the bodies had come. General Wyatt selected one and the two officers placed it in a plain coffin and sealed it. The other bodies were reburied. In the morning Chaplains of the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church and Non-Conformist churches held a service in the chapel before the body was escorted to Boulogne. The next day the coffin was placed inside another made of oak from Hampton Court sent over from England and wrapped in the flag that David Railton had used as an altar cloth during the War (known as the Ypres or Padre's Flag, which now hangs in St George's Chapel). Within the wrought iron bands of this coffin had been placed a 16th century crusader's sword from the Tower of London collection. The coffin plate bore the inscription "A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914-1918 for King and Country". The destroyer HMS Verdun, whose ship's bell now hangs near the grave in the Abbey, transported the coffin to Dover and it was then taken by train to Victoria station in London where it rested overnight.

On the morning of 11 November the coffin was placed on a gun carriage drawn by six black horses and began its journey through the crowd-lined streets, first to Whitehall where the Cenotaph was unveiled by King George V, and then, followed by the King, members of the Royal Family and ministers of State, to the north door of Westminster Abbey. It was borne to the west end of the Nave through a guard of honour of 100 holders of the Victoria Cross. During the shortened form of the Burial Service, after the hymn "Lead kindly light", the King stepped forward and dropped a handful of French earth onto the coffin as it was lowered into the grave. At the close of the service, after the hymn "Abide with me" and prayers, the congregation sang Rudyard Kipling's solemn Recessional "God of our fathers" after which the Reveille and Last Post were sounded by trumpeters. The grave was then covered by a silk funeral pall, which had been presented to the Abbey by the Actors' Church Union, with the Padre's flag lying over this. Servicemen kept watch while thousands of mourners filed past. The grave was closed on 18 November and then covered by a temporary stone with a gilded inscription on it: "A BRITISH WARRIOR WHO FELL IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-1918 FOR KING AND COUNTRY. GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS."

On 11 November 1921 the present black marble stone was unveiled at a special service. The stone was supplied and lettered by Mr Tomes of Acton and the brass for the inscription supplied by Nash & Hull. The Padre's Flag was also formerly dedicated at this service. General Pershing, on behalf of the United States of America, conferred the Congressional Medal of Honor on the Unknown Warrior on 17 October 1921 and this hangs in a frame on a pillar nearby. The body of the Unknown Warrior may be from any of the three services, Army, Navy or Air Force, and from any part of the British Isles, Dominions or Colonies and represents all those who have no other memorial.

A postcard of the grave is available from the Abbey shop.