[lit-ideas] Re: Unknown Warrior
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 12:56:25 EST
In a message dated 11/11/2004 12:15:22 PM Eastern Standard Time,
ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
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
From a site, some notes, below. I see there are a couple of 'puns' on this,
on the inscription itself:
"unknown and yet well-known", "The Lord knoweth them that are his", etc.
Apparently, Railton's idea to 'officialise' this came from his seeing a
penciled grafitto in a back garden of Armentierses (of Parley Voo fame): "an
unknown British soldier". Oddly, they changed that to the more Germanic (?),
Boewulfian word, 'warrior.
Apparently, the inscription on the coffin is by way of a Russellian
'definite description' (unlike a Berkeleian 'unknown'):
"The coffin plate bore the inscription "A British Warrior who fell in the
Great War 1914-1918 for [the] King and [the] Country [of the United Kingdom]"."
(cf. Hume/Berkeley on the Fallen, Unknown Tree -- and Ritchie's risque humor
[sic]).
Cheers,
JL
"This grave is the only part of the Abbey floor that is never walked on by
any person. On it is the following inscription, composed by Herbert Ryle, Dean
of Westminster."
BENEATH THIS STONE RESTS THE BODY
OF A BRITISH WARRIOR
UNKNOWN BY NAME OR RANK
BROUGHT FROM FRANCE TO LIE AMONG
THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS OF THE LAND
AND BURIED HERE ON ARMISTICE DAY
11 NOV: 1920, IN THE PRESENCE OF
HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V
HIS MINISTERS OF STATE
THE CHIEFS OF HIS FORCES
AND A VAST CONCOURSE OF THE NATION
THUS ARE COMMEMORATED THE MANY
MULTITUDES WHO DURING THE GREAT
WAR OF 1914-1918 GAVE THE MOST THAT
MAN CAN GIVE LIFE ITSELF
FOR GOD
FOR KING AND COUNTRY
FOR LOVED ONES HOME AND EMPIRE
FOR THE SACRED CAUSE OF JUSTICE AND
THE FREEDOM OF THE WORLD
THEY BURIED HIM AMONG THE KINGS BECAUSE HE
HAD DONE GOOD TOWARD GOD AND TOWARD
HIS HOUSE
Around the main inscription are four texts:
(top)
THE LORD KNOWETH THEM THAT ARE HIS.
(sides)
GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN THAN THIS and
UNKNOWN AND YET WELL KNOWN, DYING AND BEHOLD WE LIVE,
(base) IN CHRIST SHALL ALL BE MADE ALIVE.
"The idea of such a burial seems first to have come to a chaplain at the
Front, the Reverend David Railton (1884-l955), when he noticed in 1916 in a
back
garden at Armentieres, a grave with a rough cross on which were pencilled
the words "An Unknown British Soldier". In August 1920 he wrote to Dean Ryle,
through whose energies this memorial was carried into effect."
"The body was chosen from unknown British servicemen exhumed from four
battle areas: the Aisne. the Somme, Arras and Ypres."
"The remains were brought to the chapel at St.Pol on the night of 7 November
1920. The General Officer in charge of troops in France and Flanders,
Brigadier General L.J.Wyatt, with Colonel Gell, went into the chapel alone,
where
the bodies on stretchers were covered by Union Jacks. They had no idea from
which area the bodies had come. General Wyatt selected one and the two
officers
placed it in a plain coffin and sealed it. The other bodies were reburied."
"In the morning Chaplains of the Church of England, the Roman Catholic
Church and Non-Conformist churches held a service in the chapel before the
body
was escorted to Boulogne. The next day the coffin was placed inside another
made of oak from Hampton Court sent over from England and wrapped in the flag
that David Railton had used as an altar cloth during the War (known as the
"Padre's Flag" which now hangs in St George's Chapel). Within the wrought iron
bands of this coffin had been placed a 16th century crusader's sword from the
Tower of London collection. The coffin plate bore the inscription "A British
Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914-1918 for King and Country". The
destroyer HMS Verdun, whose ship's bell now hangs near the grave in the Abbey,
transported the coffin to Dover and it was escorted to Victoria Station by
train
where it rested overnight."
"On the morning of 11 November the coffin was placed on a gun carriage drawn
by six black horses and began its journey through the crowd-lined streets,
first to Whitehall where the Cenotaph was unveiled by King George V, and then,
followed by the King, members of the Royal Family and ministers of State, to
the north door of Westminster Abbey."
"It was borne to the west end of the Nave through a guard of honour of 100
holders of the Victoria Cross. After the Service the grave was covered by a
silk pall which had been presented to the Abbey by the Actors' Church Union,
with the Padre's flag over this. Servicemen kept watch while thousands of
mourners filed past. The grave was closed on 18 November and the temporary
stone
over it was replaced by the present one on 11 November 1921."
"The United States of America conferred the Congressional Medal of Honour on
the Unknown Warrior in 1921 and this hangs on a pillar nearby. The UK
conferred the Victoria Cross upon the American World War One Unknown Soldier,
buried in Arlington Cemetery."
"The body of the Unknown Warrior may be from any of the three services,
Army, Navy or Airforce and come from any part of the British Isles and
represents
all those who have no other memorial. The Unknown Warrior also represents
those servicemen who were killed in subsequent wars and conflicts."
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