In November, 16 men and women from across the Armed Forces, veterans and civilians, regular and reserves, will carry a stretcher 120 miles over 4 days, 100 years since the Unknown Warrior made his final journey home. 

In the aftermath of World War 1 Rev. David Railton, a serving Army Chaplain on the Western Front, saw a grave marked by a cross and written in pencil “An Unknown British Soldier”. The sight of the grave resonated with him and to ensure that all families, unable to locate loved ones lost to the war, would have a grave known to them he proposed that an unknown soldier be given a state funeral, fit for royalty and be buried in Westminster Abbey. 

On the 7th November 1920, four unknown soldiers were exhumed from across the battlefields – the Aisne, the Somme, Arras and Ypres, and brought to a temporary chapel in St-Pol-sur-Ternoise. On the stroke of midnight, Brigadier General Wyatt chose the warrior. 

“The four bodies lay on stretchers, each covered by a union jack, in front of the altar was the shell of the coffin which had been sent to England to receive the remains. I selected one, and with the assistance of Col Gell, placed it in the shell; we screwed down the lid. The other bodies were removed and reburied in the military cemetery outside my headquarters at St Pol. I had no idea even of the area from which the body I selected had come; no one else can know it.”

The unknown warrior was drawn on a carriage to Bolougne where the coffin was piped aboard destroyer HMS Verdun and carried to Dover.

“Then HMS Verdun moved off…carrying the symbol which for so many years…has meant so much to us all.”

The coffin arrived in Dover and was taken by train to Victoria Station. It arrived at Platform 8 where a memorial still stands. On 11th November 1920, the casket was placed onto a carriage driven by black horses. It passed through hushed crowds to Hyde Park Corner, down the Mall, and to Whitehall where King George V unveiled the Cenotaph and placed a wreath of roses and bay leaves upon the casket. The King then escorted the unknown warrior with his family, MPs and 100 widowed mothers to Westminster Abbey. The casket was interred in soil from all the major French battlefields, covered in a silk pal and the Belgian marble slab was inlaid with melted brass from wartime ammunition. 

To this day the tomb of the Unknown Warrior has remained the only tomb that it is forbidden to walk upon; it rests a Hero to the nation, unknown yet well known. 

This year marks 100 years since the Unknown Warrior made his journey home. To commemorate this important historic occasion a team of 16 people from across the British Armed Forces will carry a stretcher with a symbolic unknown soldier from St Pol to Westminster Abbey to mark the centenary of his return.

As a team we are raising money for the Royal British Legion’s Poppy Appeal so please help us commemorate this event and as an act of Remembrance to the Unknown Warrior, spread the word, share the story and please donate.