“They buried him among the kings because he had done good toward God and toward his house.” The coffin of the Uknown Warrior before his internment in Westminster Abbey, a memorial to all British and Commonwealth troops killed during WW1 with no known grave. 11th November 1920 [570×800]
The world called and they answered.
Lest We Forget.
Paryscope
Something something dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
thenutspoon
Dumb Question, there is actually a body entombed, right?
sprashoo
So how did they decide who to put in there?
NoraCharles91
There’s a totally fascinating podcast episode (I think it was 99% Invisible) about how DNA testing makes it possible for the various ‘unknown’ soldiers to be positively identified.
They follow the case of an ‘unknown’ soldier from the Vietnam War who was identified years later, and kind of explore the tension between the ‘unknown soldier’ as a general symbol of loss and as a real person with a family who understandably want to preserve his specific memory.
SteamrollerJack
‘he had done good toward God and toward his house’ is an interesting way of saying ‘sent to die because foolish, power-hungry men played at ruling the world.’ WWI wasn’t a ‘righteous fight’ or anything, it was a man-made human fucking disaster.
MaxInToronto
Grass
BY CARL SANDBURG
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work—
I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
Vark675
I always appreciated the concept and symbolism behind shrines to unknown warriors, but I’ve also always been curious if the bodies interred belonged to anyone who was just an utterly detestable bastard, unloved by everyone and missed by none, but accidentally enshrined and honored for generations.
HiggeldyPiggeldyPop
…and it actually is a coffin, thank goodness. (Just one of my nerdy pet peeves).
LookAcrossTheWater
I would recommend anyone visit Westminster Abbey if you get the chance. It was absolutely breathtaking and just amazing to see so many famous names and historical figures everywhere.
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justheretolurk123456
Am I the first to notice the typo in the title? "Uknown"
Pwysch
The whole story is fairly interesting, so I’ll put an abridged summary here. This covers pretty much the entire thing but I’ve likely left out a few bits and pieces:
Due to the nature of the Western Front, many British dead were simply too disfigured or mangled to have any identifying marks on them. One of these was noticed by a Chaplain who was sent to the front in 1916, when he came across an improvised grave near the frontlines which simply read, "An Unknown British Soldier."
Once he returned home, he wrote to the Dean of Westminster (head of Westminster Abbey and one of the highest-ranked members of the Church of England) suggesting that an unknown British Soldier be buried "Among the Kings" (most British monarchs up to George I were buried in Westminster Abbey) as a form of collective mourning. Many families simply had nothing to say goodbye to, even if they knew their loved ones had been Killed in Action so for them the Unknown Warrior could be a form of mourning and something they could visit. The Dean, and later the Prime Minister, approved.
A contingent from the army was sent out to France in 1920 and recovered four bodies at random from the biggest battles the British Army fought in during the war; Aisne, Ypres, Arras and the Somme. Each was then placed in a coffin and draped with a Union Jack before being taken to a chapel in Arras.
At midnight on the 7th November, Brigadier L.J. Wyatt was lead into the chapel alone, being made to close his eyes before entering. After that, he was told to place his hand on one of the coffins, and whichever one he put his hand on was chosen as the Unknown Warrior. The coffin was then transferred under armed guard to Boulogne, with French troops lining the route. Once inside the citadel at the heart of the city, it was transferred into a new coffin, one made from Oak Timbers taken from Hampton Court, one of the Royal Palaces, branded with iron and had a medieval crusader sword handpicked by King George V from the Royal Armoury and iron shield fixed on top.
Kept under armed vigil by the French 8th Infantry Division (recently decorated veterans of Verdun), the coffin was then escorted to the British destroyer HMS Verdun, complete with an entire French Infantry division, every church bell in the city being rung and a procession nearly a mile long, mostly of French school children. The Verdun departed while being saluted by Marshal Foche, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces during the War, and was then joined by six British Battleships in the English Channel. On reaching Dover, it received a 19-gun salute (an honour only given to Field Marshalls).
Once in England, the coffin was taken by train to London, before kept overnight in Victoria Station under armed guard on the night of the 10th November. The following morning, the coffin was placed on a Gun Carriage and drawn by the Royal Horse Artillery through the streets of London to Westminster, being given another Field Marshalls salute in Hyde Park. Once inside the Abbey, it was flanked by an honour guard of 100 Victoria Cross recipients, the highest award for gallantry/courage under fire a soldier can receive. After the unveiling of the cenotaph, the Unknown Warrior was interred in the entrance to the Abbey in a service overseen by the King, the honour guard, the heads of the Army, Navy and Royal Air Force and 100 women who had lost their husband and all their sons treated as guests of honour.
To this day, it’s the only tomb in Westminster Abbey that it is forbidden to walk on. If you want to learn more about the British Army in WW1, I’d highly recommend Tommy by Richard Holmes. For more on the Unknown Warrior, check out The Unknown Soldier by Neil Hanson. If you’re interested in society and economics, this documentary by Andrew Marr is fantastic, as is The Long Shadow by David Reynolds.
garmachi
Here’s a higher resolution image. The handwriting on the photo reads "7.11.20" which would be 7 November, 1920.
Internment is the state of being confined as a prisoner.
RoscoMan1
I thought trenches were more popular in WW1?
pinewood25
The point is quite moot because there are the remains of several people.
But think about it. If it were one person, it wouldn’t entirely be an unknown person. It’d be a person that lived, laughed and felt. It’d be someone with probably at least 20 years of history and dreams.
You could potentially write one hell of a book about this.
still_guns
To this day, not one person has stood on that grave.
shadowwraith69
God bless the our british allies. Im not religious but you know, i wish yall good faith. Love from florida
duckstudent
There’s a pretty good book about the various tombs of the unknown soldier. I think it was called the unknowns. Anyway fun fact the unknown soldier from france england and the us all received the other countries highest award.
confusedCoyote
Original, 1920, report from British Pathé
"Armistice Day in 1920 – funeral of Unknown Soldier as coffin is brought from France to London Cenotaph."
He was also buried with a sword that was used in the crusades
Ihavenoshins
Wow I really sat for longer than I’d like to admit trying to figure out why The Ultimate Warrior was buried at Westminster Abbey…
FusionCannon
me when i get blown up in quake into unidentifiable gibs
KnowsAboutMath
>I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
>It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.
>Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ Day is not.
>So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don’t want to throw away any sacred things.
>What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.
>And all music is.
-Kurt Vonnegut, in his book Breakfast of Champions
![“They buried him among the kings because he had done good toward God and toward his house.” The coffin of the Uknown Warrior before his internment in Westminster Abbey, a memorial to all British and Commonwealth troops killed during WW1 with no known grave. 11th November 1920 [570x800]](https://i.redd.it/a847pomgvly51.jpg)
LightStarVII
And he deserves to live forever in peace.
take2or3
The world called and they answered.
Lest We Forget.
Paryscope
Something something dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
thenutspoon
Dumb Question, there is actually a body entombed, right?
sprashoo
So how did they decide who to put in there?
NoraCharles91
There’s a totally fascinating podcast episode (I think it was 99% Invisible) about how DNA testing makes it possible for the various ‘unknown’ soldiers to be positively identified.
They follow the case of an ‘unknown’ soldier from the Vietnam War who was identified years later, and kind of explore the tension between the ‘unknown soldier’ as a general symbol of loss and as a real person with a family who understandably want to preserve his specific memory.
SteamrollerJack
‘he had done good toward God and toward his house’ is an interesting way of saying ‘sent to die because foolish, power-hungry men played at ruling the world.’ WWI wasn’t a ‘righteous fight’ or anything, it was a man-made human fucking disaster.
MaxInToronto
Grass
BY CARL SANDBURG
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work—
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
Vark675
I always appreciated the concept and symbolism behind shrines to unknown warriors, but I’ve also always been curious if the bodies interred belonged to anyone who was just an utterly detestable bastard, unloved by everyone and missed by none, but accidentally enshrined and honored for generations.
HiggeldyPiggeldyPop
…and it actually is a coffin, thank goodness. (Just one of my nerdy pet peeves).
LookAcrossTheWater
I would recommend anyone visit Westminster Abbey if you get the chance. It was absolutely breathtaking and just amazing to see so many famous names and historical figures everywhere.
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justheretolurk123456
Am I the first to notice the typo in the title? "Uknown"
Pwysch
The whole story is fairly interesting, so I’ll put an abridged summary here. This covers pretty much the entire thing but I’ve likely left out a few bits and pieces:
Due to the nature of the Western Front, many British dead were simply too disfigured or mangled to have any identifying marks on them. One of these was noticed by a Chaplain who was sent to the front in 1916, when he came across an improvised grave near the frontlines which simply read, "An Unknown British Soldier."
Once he returned home, he wrote to the Dean of Westminster (head of Westminster Abbey and one of the highest-ranked members of the Church of England) suggesting that an unknown British Soldier be buried "Among the Kings" (most British monarchs up to George I were buried in Westminster Abbey) as a form of collective mourning. Many families simply had nothing to say goodbye to, even if they knew their loved ones had been Killed in Action so for them the Unknown Warrior could be a form of mourning and something they could visit. The Dean, and later the Prime Minister, approved.
A contingent from the army was sent out to France in 1920 and recovered four bodies at random from the biggest battles the British Army fought in during the war; Aisne, Ypres, Arras and the Somme. Each was then placed in a coffin and draped with a Union Jack before being taken to a chapel in Arras.
At midnight on the 7th November, Brigadier L.J. Wyatt was lead into the chapel alone, being made to close his eyes before entering. After that, he was told to place his hand on one of the coffins, and whichever one he put his hand on was chosen as the Unknown Warrior. The coffin was then transferred under armed guard to Boulogne, with French troops lining the route. Once inside the citadel at the heart of the city, it was transferred into a new coffin, one made from Oak Timbers taken from Hampton Court, one of the Royal Palaces, branded with iron and had a medieval crusader sword handpicked by King George V from the Royal Armoury and iron shield fixed on top.
Kept under armed vigil by the French 8th Infantry Division (recently decorated veterans of Verdun), the coffin was then escorted to the British destroyer HMS Verdun, complete with an entire French Infantry division, every church bell in the city being rung and a procession nearly a mile long, mostly of French school children. The Verdun departed while being saluted by Marshal Foche, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces during the War, and was then joined by six British Battleships in the English Channel. On reaching Dover, it received a 19-gun salute (an honour only given to Field Marshalls).
Once in England, the coffin was taken by train to London, before kept overnight in Victoria Station under armed guard on the night of the 10th November. The following morning, the coffin was placed on a Gun Carriage and drawn by the Royal Horse Artillery through the streets of London to Westminster, being given another Field Marshalls salute in Hyde Park. Once inside the Abbey, it was flanked by an honour guard of 100 Victoria Cross recipients, the highest award for gallantry/courage under fire a soldier can receive. After the unveiling of the cenotaph, the Unknown Warrior was interred in the entrance to the Abbey in a service overseen by the King, the honour guard, the heads of the Army, Navy and Royal Air Force and 100 women who had lost their husband and all their sons treated as guests of honour.
To this day, it’s the only tomb in Westminster Abbey that it is forbidden to walk on. If you want to learn more about the British Army in WW1, I’d highly recommend Tommy by Richard Holmes. For more on the Unknown Warrior, check out The Unknown Soldier by Neil Hanson. If you’re interested in society and economics, this documentary by Andrew Marr is fantastic, as is The Long Shadow by David Reynolds.
garmachi
Here’s a higher resolution image. The handwriting on the photo reads "7.11.20" which would be 7 November, 1920.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fa/1e/ba/fa1eba9bc17ba9a7a31d152f15b94608.jpg
MasonInk
FYI: it’s "interment" when relating to burial.
Internment is the state of being confined as a prisoner.
RoscoMan1
I thought trenches were more popular in WW1?
pinewood25
The point is quite moot because there are the remains of several people.
But think about it. If it were one person, it wouldn’t entirely be an unknown person. It’d be a person that lived, laughed and felt. It’d be someone with probably at least 20 years of history and dreams.
You could potentially write one hell of a book about this.
still_guns
To this day, not one person has stood on that grave.
shadowwraith69
God bless the our british allies. Im not religious but you know, i wish yall good faith. Love from florida
duckstudent
There’s a pretty good book about the various tombs of the unknown soldier. I think it was called the unknowns. Anyway fun fact the unknown soldier from france england and the us all received the other countries highest award.
confusedCoyote
Original, 1920, report from British Pathé
"Armistice Day in 1920 – funeral of Unknown Soldier as coffin is brought from France to London Cenotaph."
https://youtu.be/ug90S6wnWV0
TrannosaurusRegina
A great video on the subject!
https://youtu.be/JlYUmyPoL30
Predator_Hicks
He was also buried with a sword that was used in the crusades
Ihavenoshins
Wow I really sat for longer than I’d like to admit trying to figure out why The Ultimate Warrior was buried at Westminster Abbey…
FusionCannon
me when i get blown up in quake into unidentifiable gibs
KnowsAboutMath
>I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, and when Dwayne Hoover was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
>It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.
>Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ Day is not.
>So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don’t want to throw away any sacred things.
>What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.
>And all music is.
-Kurt Vonnegut, in his book Breakfast of Champions