Westminster service marks centenary of Unknown Warrior

Stretcher bearers on the Western Front

Source: Westminster Abbey

A special Armistice Day service was held at Westminster Abbey to mark the centenary of the burial of the Unknown Warrior. The congregation - joined by millions around the UK through the media - commemorated those who died with a two-minute silence at 11am.

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, together with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick attended the scaled-back service, led by the Dean of Westminster, Dr David Hoyle.

In his homily the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, paid tribute to the many millions who had died "unnamed and unclaimed, except by God."

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage read 'The Bed' about a fallen soldier transported from being "broken and sleeping rough in a dirt grave" to being buried "among drowsing poets and dozing saints" in Westminster Abbey.

BBC radio presenter, Cerys Matthews read the words of a World War One widow convinced the Unknown Warrior was her husband.

Ruby Turner, accompanied by Jools Holland, sang the hymn Abide with Me, which was sung at the burial 100 years ago.

Commemorations were also held in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast National Arboretum in Staffordshire.

The concept of the grave of the Unknown Warrior was inspired by Rev David Railton, who served as a chaplain on the Western Front during World War One. Recalling a rough wooden cross in a French garden, on which had been written 'An Unknown British Soldier'- and reflecting on the anguish of bereaved families who would never know the final resting place of loved ones killed in action - he asked the Dean, Dr Herbert Ryle, to consider burying the body of one such 'unknown comrade' in Westminster Abbey. His proposal was later supported by King George V and Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

The body was chosen from four unknown British servicemen - exhumed from four battle areas - by Brigadier General Louis Wyatt, commander of British forces in France and Flanders. Chaplains of the Church of England, Roman Catholic Church and Non-Conformist churches held a service in the chapel before the body was escorted to Boulogne to rest overnight before it was transported back to Britain.

On 11 November 1920, the coffin was draped with a union jack and taken on a gun carriage to the Cenotaph, where the Queen's grandfather George V placed a wreath upon it. The King and about 1,000 widows and mothers of men killed in the war were present as the warrior was buried at the Abbey. A handful of earth from France was dropped by the King onto his coffin during the service.

For more information see: www.westminster-abbey.org/abbey-commemorations/commemorations/unknown-warrior