In 1918, at 11.00am on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – the First World War came to an end. Most of the war was fought in dug-out trenches across Belgium and France. Perhaps as many as 9 million soldiers died, there were about 27 million were wounded – many permanently disabled. Then at 11.00am, the fighting stopped everywhere, six hours after the Armistice was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne, northern France.
It was two years later that the body of an unknown British soldier, from one of those desperate battlefields, was placed in a coffin and brought to England. In 1920 the coffin of the unknown soldier was taken in procession to Westminster Abbey, past thousands of people lining the streets. During the service, the coffin was laid to rest with some soil from France in the floor of the central aisle of Westminster Abbey. The tomb commemorates all British casualties, especially those who have no known grave, and all who suffered during that war and since. Lying there amongst the tombs of kings and queens and many famous people, this “Tomb of the Unknown Warrior” bears the inscription,
“Beneath this stone rests the body of a British warrior, unknown by name or rank, brought from France to be among the most illustrious of the land.”
Less we forget they gave so much for our today
