the Unknown Warrior

The Unknown Warrior lies in Westminster Abbey, a plain black Belgian-marble stone in the west nave. The slab bears no name, only an inscription and four New Testament texts. It is the only tomb in the Abbey where walking is forbidden. The warrior was chosen in 1920 from four coffins at Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise. Brigadier Wyatt rested his hand blindfolded on one coffin; the others were reburied. King George V fixed a 16th-century sword to the oak casket and a shield reading ‘A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914–1918 for King and Country’. The body crossed France by torch-lit procession, sailed on HMS Verdun, and reached London at Victoria Station on 10 November. Visitors find the grave at the far end of the nave, close to the entrance. A hundred Victoria Cross holders once stood guard as mourners filed past. Each year on 11 November a small Remembrance service is held between platforms 8 and 9 at Victoria Station. The stone’s inscription ends with words from 2 Chronicles, linking the unknown man to the kings buried nearby.