Unknown Warrior

10 November 2020

This year, on 11 November, marks the 100th anniversary of the Unknown Warrior - an
unidentified body chosen to represent all the soldiers, airmen, and sailors who were lost
in the First World War. Watch the video timeline of the Unknown Warrior journey
and download our Unknown Warrior badge.

Brigadier General Louis John Wyatt was the General Officer in command of British
troops in France and Flanders, as well as Director of graves, registrations, and
enquiries. In this capacity, in a makeshift chapel at St Pol in France, Wyatt chose the
body of a soldier to represent the Unknown Warrior. This unidentified body was chosen
to represent the many lives lost and was buried with reverence in Westminster Abbey.
The funeral and burial in London of the Unknown Warrior on Armistice Day in 1920 was
the biggest outpouring of grief the country has ever seen. Thousands lined the streets of
the funeral procession from Victoria Station to Westminster Abbey. They had all come to
pay their last respects, silent, many in tears, the men bareheaded. More than 10,000
people applied for a seat inside Westminster Abbey for the burial, whilst over the next
week more than a million people filed past the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior. There was
barely a family untouched by the Great War in some way.
 
Marking the 100th anniversary of the burial of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster
Abbey is a time to reflect again on the service and the sacrifices made by those in our
Armed Forces; SSAFA is there to honour that debt, as we were 100 years ago, for
those who need assistance.