November 11, 1920 - Unknown Soldiers Buried in London and Paris
Pictured - The Unknown Warrior lying in state in Westminster Abbey before burial on November 11, 1920.
In 1919 the celebrations of the Allies had been tempered by a solemn remembrance of the price paid for victory. One of the most moving elements of these commemorations was a wood and plaster Cenotaph, designed by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, based on a similar monument that had been erected next to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris for the great Victory Parade in July.
A tomb without an occupant, the Cenotaph became a communal mourning space for countless families who had lost loved ones. Lutyens recalled that the crowd around the monument grew so thick that flowers had to be passed up by hand. This outpouring of grief led the government to commission Lutyens to create a permanent Cenotaph for the next anniversary of the warās end.Ā
On Armistice Day 1920 the King unveiled the permanent Cenotaph on Whitehall. The slender stone pillar bore a single unoccupied tomb, inscribed merely āTHE GLORIOUS DEAD.ā The unveiling coincided with the burial of an unidentified soldier at Westminster Abbey, another new form of commemoration meant to represent all who had died.
The unveiling of the Cenotaph.
The idea to bury an unknown soldier was conceived in 1916 by David Railton, an army chaplain who was moved by the amount of unmarked graves he saw on the Western Front. After the war, Railton wrote to the Dean of Westminster proposing that the body of an ordinary soldier be buried āamongst the kingsā as a way of honoring the sacrifices of the many British and imperial servicemen who had given their lives but who had no marked grave. Like the Cenotaph, the Unknown Warrior proved popular as a way to memorialize the war. It was at once a symbol of military glory while also a remarkably personal monument, one which allowed anyone to mourn their dead.
In September the military unearthed four unidentified bodies from temporary graves on the Western Front. One was selected at random and placed in an oak coffin, on top of which lay a crusaderās sword and shield, inscribed āāA British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914-1918 for King and Country.ā
After being escorted to the Channel by a French honor guard and saluted by Marshal Foch, the casket was brought to London, where it was drawn by six horses through London to Westminster Abbey. It was accompanied by one hundred recipients of the Victoria Cross, and carried into the abbey by pallbearers including Haig and Admiral David Beatty. Among the guests of honor were one hundred women who had lost their husband and all their sons in the war.
France also buried its own unknown warrior, chosen by a young soldier from eight unidentified bodies lying in state at the citadel of Verdun. The body was laid to rest underneath the Arc de Triomphe, and in 1921 an enteral flame was added, which has burned perpetually since in memory of the dead of all wars.Ā
Franceās unknown soldier is brought from Verdun to Paris.
The cult of the unknown warrior is one of the most influential new forms of commemoration to come out of the Great War. In 1921 the United States entombed its own Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, and since then most nations have created their own monuments to the anonymous dead.
