In November 1916, a local officer of Le Souvenir français proposed the idea of burying 'an unknown soldier' in the Panthéon. At the same time, a similar concern grew in France. The idea received the support of the Dean of Westminster, Prime Minister David Lloyd George, and later from King George V, responding to a wave of public support.

He suggested (together with the French in their own country) the creation at a national level of a symbolic funeral and burial of an 'Unknown Warrior', proposing that the grave should in the UK include a national monument in the form of what is usually, but not in this particular case, a headstone.

In the UK, under the Imperial War Graves Commission (now Commonwealth War Graves Commission), the Reverend David Railton had seen a grave marked by a rough cross while serving in the British Army as a chaplain on the Western Front, which bore the pencil-written legend 'An Unknown British Soldier'. The first known monument of an unknown soldier in Europe is Landsoldaten ('The Valiant Private Soldier') (1849), from the First Schleswig War, in Fredericia, Denmark.ĭuring the First World War, the British and French armies who were allies during the war jointly decided to bury soldiers themselves. Beginning in 1593, when the Ministry of Rites received permission to perform a sacrifice for all who died in the battle, not only the identifiable bodies, the state offered sacrifices for the dead twice a year in spring and autumn until 1908, when the practice was ended by royal edict. It is, however, more inclusive, in that it is a memorial to all who died in defense of the city against the forces of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, civilian as well as soldier. Following World War I, a movement arose to commemorate these soldiers with a single tomb, containing the body of one such unidentified soldier.Ī shrine in Jinju, Korea, which commemorated those who died in defense of Korea during the Imjin War in 1592, has been described as the first Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Throughout history, many soldiers have died in war with their remains being unidentified. Such tombs can be found in many nations and are usually high-profile national monuments. The statue Landsoldaten, Fredericia, DenmarkĪ Tomb of the Unknown Soldier or Tomb of the Unknown Warrior is a monument dedicated to the services of an unknown soldier and to the common memories of all soldiers killed in war.

Tomb of unknown soldier