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| The Great War - The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier |
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| Written by Rob Atherton |
| Monday, 14 November 2011 09:35 |
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All through The Great War, the slaughter over the fields of Flanders was on an awful scale with the majority of bodies never identified or recovered. On 11th November 1920, simultaneously ceremonies were held both in London and Paris to unveil tombs of unknown soldiers. The tomb of the unknown soldier came to represent the loss sustained by the families of troops who died and their bodies were never identified or brought back. The unknown French soldier lies in the Arc de Triomphe in Paris while the unknown British soldier lies buried in Westminster Abbey between nobleman and statesmen. The idea was first of all contemplated by a clergyman named Reverend David Railton. In 1916 in France, he had noticed a cross with the words "An Unknown British Soldier" written on it. 4 years later in 1920, Railton approached the Dean of Westminster implying that it would be acceptable to create a nationally recognised grave for an unidentified soldier. Four British servicemen were exhumed from Aisne, the Somme, Arras and Ypres and taken to a chapel at St Pol, in the vicinity of Arras. Every body was draped in a Union flag and one was picked by Brigadier General L J Wyatt. Wyatt had no idea from where the soldiers had been taken from or their rank. The idea was that the unknown soldier could possibly have been anyone from a Private to a Colonel, a colonial labourer to the son of an Earl. The soldiers coffin was brought to London and was taken to Westminster Abbey in a horse drawn gun carriage. The cortege was accompanied by King George V and individuals of the Royal family. At Westminster Abbey, it was flanked by a guard of 100 recipients of the Victoria Cross. The coffin was placed and covered with dirt brought from the battlefields of World War I. It was topped with a piece of black marble from Belgium and is the only tombstone in Westminster Abbey on which it's forbidden to step on. Since then, plenty of other nations have committed similar tombs such as Argentina, Australia, Canada, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Russia, Ukraine and the United States. About the Author: World War I was reduced to a bloody stalemate which saw so many lives needlessly given. Hardly any families in Britain were left unaffected.. This article, The Great War - The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is released under a creative commons attribution license. Kindly provided by MoneyHunter.org You are welcome to use this article on your own website, if you include the link just before this text. |
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