The Unknown Soldier
The Unknown Soldier In 1916 Reverend Railton saw a cross inscribed ‘An Unknown Warrior of the Black Watch.’ Railton contemplated who the soldier was, and who grieved for him. He also wondered if an unidentified soldier’s body could be reinterred in England to represent the lives sacrificed in the Great War. Railton’s vision became reality on 11 November 1920 when an unknown soldier was buried at Westminster Abbey. As Amelia Bromley watched on, her thoughts turned to her dead son: ‘Yes, he’s come back home … to the place he first entered this world.’ That same day, France entombed a poilu’s remains beneath the Arc De Triomphe. A year later, an unknown American soldier was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. These tombs became places for silent contemplation, and often sad resignation. In 1926, a one-legged veteran named Trocker visited the Paris tomb, and smashed a magnum of champagne on the sacred stone and drunkenly toasted the glorious dead. He was arrested and carted away. He