THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER OF WORLD WAR I

In 1916 David Railton was serving as a chaplain to British forces in France.  One day he noticed a make-shift grave marked by a wooden cross across which was written "An Unknown British Soldier".  Four years later he wrote to the Dean of Westminster to convey a remembrance of that scene.  Dean Ryle recognized the message spoken by that grave in France and became the directing force that resulted in the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of Great Britain.

Selection of the soldier destined for burial in the Nave at Westminster Abbey began in France, where the remains of four unknown British war casualties were exhumed from Aisne, the Somme, Arras and Ypres.  The four bodies, were transported in Northern France in November 1920.  There Brigadier General L.J. Wyatt, commander of British troops in France and Flanders, at random selected one to become the Unknown Soldier of the Great War, and two officers placed the body in a coffin and sealed it.  The remaining bodies were reinterred at a nearby military cemetery.

On November 8 a service was held to commemorate the sacrifice of the Unknown Soldier, officiated by chaplains from the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Non-Conformist Churches.  The body was then escorted to France.

On November 9 the coffin was placed inside another that had been constructed of oak from Hampton Court, then sent over from England and a plate on the coffin was inscribed:  "A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914-1918 for King and Country". 

On November 11, the Unknown Soldier was transported through London's crowd-lined streets and to the west end of the Nave in Westminster Abbey. Following the hymn "Lead Kindly Light", King George V sprinkled soil from the battlefield at Ypres. 

On November 18 a temporary stone sealed the grave, inscribed with the words: "A British Warrior Who Fell in the Great War 1914-1918 for King and Country.  Greater Love Hath No Man Than This."

On October 17, 1921 American General John J. Pershing presented the Medal of Honor to the Unknown Soldier of Great Britain.  That Medal of Honor now hangs in a frame on a nearby pillar.

On November 11, 1921, the same date on which the American Unknown Soldier was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. A slab of black Belgian marble became the permanent replacement with an inscription to forever commemorate the Unknown soldier from World War I.