Summary

The People’s Pilgrimage

At the end of the ceremony at the Cenotaph, people from all country belonging to all social classes began to lay flowers at the base of it or on the Unknown Warrior’s grave. However, there were so many “pilgrims” that they formed a few long queues. Those didn’t diminish their length all week, making the “voyage” to the Cenotaph and the grave last many hours and making many hundreds give up. In particular, Saturday 13 was called the “children’s day”, since there were great numbers of little ones of all ages.

The tribute-giving continued at night and under the rain and all attempts to regulate it failed.

It went on even after the end of the official mourning, when, even though traffic had begun again, drivers slowed out of respect and removed their hats.

The closure of the grave of the Unknown Warrior was postponed from Wednesday 17th November to the following day due to the doubling visitors.

Flowers were cleared on 17 October 1921, when the USA conferred the Congressional Medal of Honor on the unknown soldier. The ceremony took place later than expected due to a delay caused by the reluctance of the King to confer the Victoria Cross to the American unknown warrior.

On Armistice Day, 11 November 1921, the temporary stone of the grave of the unknown warrior was replaced by the official one. However there were protests regarding its content, that was required too Christian, while people didn’t know the unknown warrior’s faith.

Other protests were made by ex-servicemen, who interrupted the ceremony crying that they needed “food, not prayers”. So, the government tried to change the focus of Armistice Day from a “day of National grief” to a celebration of victory.

Public mourning stretched beyond Armistice Day also on this occasion, creating long queues throughout the weekend.

On this period, poppies had begun to be associated with war, so an organization was created to sell then for the benefit of ex-servicemen. Sellers of poppies were stationed on every part of the country, but some people made and sold them for profit.

Even twenty years after the burial of the unknown warrior, thousands were still paying their respects at his grave; this required the creation of local memorials, which had few precedents. Members of Red Cross units were given the duty to search for graves, take care of them and identify soldiers. The majority of the dead were civilians, so a vast numbers of monuments were ‘civilian’ and lamented the sacrifice of the dead.

However, some people complained about this, since the scarce funds could have been used to take care of veterans instead of creating memorials, that in some communities had an utilitarian form. The ritual of commemoration was used by academicians, too, and was adapted for propaganda purposes by people who supported and opposed to war. However, it was essential for the government to assert that the fallen had not died in vain.

Battlefields and war cemeteries attracted ever-growing numbers throughout the 1920s and 1930s. They were mostly relatives of the fallen and veterans, but some were tourists. Indeed, some of the remaining trenches were used as tourist traps and some villages were rebuilt with cafes and souvenir shops for tourists.