Tuesday 11 November 2008

11 November 1920: The Cenotaph and The Unknown Warrior


On the morning of 11th November 1920 - the second anniversary of the armistice - the Unknown Warrior was drawn in a procession in London. This was the body of a man killed during the First World War and represented all those who died who had no known grave. The procession paused at the Cenotaph (the war memorial on Whitehall designed by Edwin Lutyens), which was then unveiled by King George V. At 11 o'clock there was a two minutes silence, and the body was then taken to Westminster Abbey where it was buried at the west end of the nave. To the surprise of the organisers, in the week after the burial an estimated 1,250,000 people visited the abbey, and the site is now one of the most visited war graves in the world.

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