How the unknown warrior came to Westminster Abbey

Creating the tomb was the idea of a man who was at the centre of the action during World War One – army chaplain the Reverend David Railton.

During the war while in a back garden at Erkingham, near Armentières in northern France, Railton noticed a grave with a rough cross on which the words “An Unknown British Soldier” were pencilled.

Fighting during World War One was characterised by trench warfare, the use of machine-guns, artillery and chemical weapons, with those who died in action often hurriedly buried in makeshift graves where they fell.

The nature of their injuries also meant bodies were badly disfigured, making it difficult to identify them, while the lack of a body made it harder for many of those at home to mourn them.

“Month after month, year after year, as the war rumbled on Railton therefore privately nurtured his idea,” Nichol explains.