[lit-ideas] Re: Unknown Warrior
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 08:43:07 -0800
on 11/11/04 7:25 AM, Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx at Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx wrote:
...the 'unknown soldier' at Westminster
>
> Ditto for the unknown soldier. (Who was the Official who came out with that
> brilliant phrase?)
> Cheers,
>
> JL
>
The best account of this, Adrian Gregroy, "The Silence of Memory; Armistice
Day 1919-1946" leaves the question in doubt. Should you want to look at the
records themselves, they can be found in the Public Record Office, PRO CAB
27/99
Here is Gregory:
In early October 1920 the Dean of Westminster Abbey, apparently acting on a
suggestion by the wartime padre, David Railton, wrote to George V suggesting
that an unknown body from the battlefields of France and Flanders should be
disintered and reburied with full military honours in Westminster Abbey.
The King did not approve of the idea, believing that it would be distasteful
and "would reopen the war wound which is gradually healing." The Dean,
undeterred, approached Lloyd George who was enthusiastic. The Prime
Minister persuaded the King and Lord Curzon was placed in charge of
arrangements. A committee chaired by Curzon planned the ceremonies of the
day. The Committee comprised Curzon, Lord Lee, Winston Churchill, Walter
Long, Alfred Mond, Mr Shortt and Colonel Storr (secretary)...[snip]...It is
clear from reading the Committee reports and conclusions that the bulk of
the ceremony was Curzon's personal inspiration. For example, Churchill was
assigned committee duty but did not attend any of the meetings.
On 9 November 1920, according to most press accounts, six bodies were
exhumed from Ypres, the Somme, Cambrai, the Aisne, the Marne and Arras. The
bodies were taken to Ypres where a blindfolded officer selected one of the
coffins...
Jay Winter, "Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning," reports that the first two
such tombs--both created in 1920-- were in Britain and France. The following
year the U.S., Italy, Belgium and Portugal adopted the idea. "Most other
countries followed suit, or, as in the cases of Canada, Australia, New
Zealand, accepted the tomb in the Motherland to represent their own unknown
soldiers. On 11 November 1993, the Australians broke ranks, and brought
home one of their unknown soldiers who had been buried in a Commonwealth War
Graves Commission cemetery. After a full military funeral, he was laid to
rest in the 'Hall of Memory' of the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Germans are an exception to this rule. Winter says they were unable to
agree on a suitable site.
David Ritchie
Portland, Oregon
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