Known unto God

Last updated
The phrase engraved onto a CWGC gravestone Known unto God - WWI - Loos cemetery (cropped).jpg
The phrase engraved onto a CWGC gravestone
Use on a First World War gravestone for an unknown Australian lieutenant Headstone Known unto God 3431.jpg
Use on a First World War gravestone for an unknown Australian lieutenant
Use on a Second World War grave marker for a soldier of unknown allegiance Arezzo War Cemetery 03.jpg
Use on a Second World War grave marker for a soldier of unknown allegiance
Used on a variant headstone for geologically unstable areas Known unto God CWGC greece stone.jpg
Used on a variant headstone for geologically unstable areas
Use on a 1900 Second Boer War grave marker of an unknown British soldier, though the plaque is of a later date Known unto God.JPG
Use on a 1900 Second Boer War grave marker of an unknown British soldier, though the plaque is of a later date

Known unto God is a phrase used on the gravestones of unknown soldiers in Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemeteries. The phrase was selected by British poet Rudyard Kipling who worked for what was then the Imperial War Graves Commission during the First World War. The origin of the phrase is unknown but it has been linked to sections of the King James Bible. The phrase was re-used for those killed during the Second World War and appears on more than 212,000 gravestones across the world. In 2013 there was controversy when it was proposed that the phrase be removed from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Australian War Memorial.

Contents

Background

The phrase "Known unto God" forms the standard epitaph for all unidentified soldiers of the First World War buried in Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemeteries. [1] [2] The phrase is engraved towards the bottom of the gravestone. The first line of text on the stone is a description of the deceased, which may be little more than "A soldier of the Great War"; the centre shows a cross, though the deceased's actual religious affiliation may be unknown; and the top an appropriate unit badge where known. [1] [3] The phrase appears on more than 212,000 CWGC gravestones around the world. [4]

Kipling

The phrase was selected by British poet Rudyard Kipling. [5] Kipling had joined the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC) [6] – the predecessor to the CWGC – in 1917 as its first literary adviser. [7]

Kipling's involvement with the IWGC may have been influenced by the loss of his only son John Kipling in the 1915 Battle of Loos. [8] [2] John was missing presumed killed in action (his grave was only identified in 1992) and this weighed heavily upon Rudyard Kipling. [5] [2] In discussing memorials to those missing with no known grave he said "[t]his matter is naturally of the deepest concern to the relatives of those whose bodies have never been recovered or identified, or whose graves, once made, have been destroyed by later battles" and when the ongoing funding of the IWGC was discussed in parliament he was quick to defend it stating "our boy was missing at Loos. The ground is of course battered and mined past all hope of any trace being recovered. I wish some of the people who are making this trouble realised how more than fortunate they are to have a name on a headstone in a known place". [2] Kipling was renowned as an author who contributed to the mythology of the British Empire in the late-19th and early 20th-centuries so he seems to have been a natural choice to compose the texts to commemorate that Empire's contribution to the war. [9]

Origins of the phrase

Kipling's choice of wording may have been influenced by his experience as a grieving father. [8] At the time his poetry was also becoming more fragmented and bitter in nature. Some of his poems of the time were just two lines long, of a similar length to the epitaphs. [10] Kipling's inspiration for the wording of "known unto God" is unknown, however the phrase occurs twice in the King James Bible. In Philippians 4:6 in which the reader is urged not to worry and to make all his desires "known unto God" and in Acts of the Apostles 15:18 which states "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world" to explain the extent of God's power. [11] [12] Kipling's phrasing has been linked by at least one commentator to the Epistle to the Galatians 4:9 which in the King James version is rendered "But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God" and describes the nature of the personal relationship between the worshipper and the deity. [13] Kipling is known to have taken phrases from the King James Bible for his works, including "lest we forget" (from Deuteronomy 6:12) in his 1897 work "Recessional", which is now frequently used in remembrance services. [14]

Kipling also selected the phrasings "their glory shall not be blotted out" which is used on the headstones of those whose burial place was once known but was lost during the course of the war; "believed to be buried in this cemetery" which is used for individuals whose exact burial place is unknown but are known to be within a certain cemetery; "the glorious dead" which is used on The Cenotaph, Whitehall and "their name liveth for evermore" which is used on Stones of Remembrance in CWGC cemeteries. [15] [16] [17] The phrasing of the last is known to have been taken by Kipling from the Book of Ecclesiasticus. [7]

Legacy

Kipling is described as one of the three key figures in the development of the IWGC cemeteries, along with architect Edwin Lutyens and garden designer Gertrude Jekyll. [17] He continued to be involved in the IWGC post-war, writing a description of the work of the commission in the 1919 book The Graves of the Fallen and also contributing a preface to a Thomas Cook sales brochure describing the decorum that tourists should exhibit whilst visiting the cemeteries. [2] [18]

The phrase was used again by the CWGC for unknown graves of the 1939-45 war in which use it is preceded by the phrase "a soldier of the Second World War" or a variant thereof. It has been used on the gravestones of the British dead of the 1899–1901 Second Boer War, for example at Spion Kop where some graves read: "A brave British soldier – known unto God", though these stones do not seem to be contemporary to the war. [19] The phrase continues to be used in modern works, for example a British poet included it as a line in a work to honour the dead of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014. [20]

2013 Australian War Memorial controversy

"Known unto God" inscribed into the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Australian War Memorial Northern view of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the AWM in December 2018.jpg
"Known unto God" inscribed into the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Australian War Memorial

To mark the 75th anniversary of the end of the First World War in 1993, an unknown Australian soldier from the CWGC Adelaide Cemetery at Villers-Bretonneux [21] was returned to Australia to establish a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Hall of Memory of the Australian War Memorial (AWM) in Canberra. [22] A eulogy was delivered by Prime Minister Paul Keating at the re-interment, which included the words: "We do not know this Australian's name ... he has always been among those we have honoured ... We know that he was one of the 45,000 Australians who died on the Western Front ... He is all of them. And he is one of us." [23] [24] [25] [lower-alpha 1]

In 1999, the "Known unto God" phrase was added to the tomb, despite founding figure Charles Bean's intention that there were to be no religious aspects to the memorial and the AWM always having been a secular institution. [24] [26] In 2013 the AWM resolved to replace the phrase with words from Keating's eulogy. After some complaints about removal of the phrase, it was determined to retain it but to add the words to the tomb from the Keating eulogy: "He is all of them, and he is one of us". [24] [26]

Variations

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the United States bears a similar inscription "...known but to God", on the west panel.

Notes

  1. In some early sources, the words for the inscription were incorrectly cited as "He is one of them, he is all of us". The excerpt from Keating's eulogy and that appear on the inscription are "He is all of them / And he is one of us".

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">El Alamein</span> City in Matrouh, Egypt

El Alamein is a town in the northern Matrouh Governorate of Egypt. Located on the Mediterranean Sea, it lies 106 kilometres (66 mi) west of Alexandria and 300 kilometres (186 mi) northwest of Cairo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commonwealth War Graves Commission</span> Commonwealth organisation responsible for war graves

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military service members who died in the two World Wars. The commission is also responsible for commemorating Commonwealth civilians who died as a result of enemy action during the Second World War. The commission was founded by Sir Fabian Ware and constituted through Royal Charter in 1917 as the Imperial War Graves Commission. The change to the present name took place in 1960.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Menin Gate</span> World War I memorial in Ypres, Belgium

The Menin Gate, officially the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, is a war memorial in Ypres, Belgium, dedicated to the British and Commonwealth soldiers who were killed in the Ypres Salient of World War I and whose graves are unknown. The memorial is located at the eastern exit of the town and marks the starting point for one of the main roads that led Allied soldiers to the front line.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thiepval Memorial</span> Memorial in Somme, France

The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a war memorial to 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme of the First World War between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. It is near the village of Thiepval, Picardy in France. A visitors' centre opened in 2004. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, Thiepval has been described as "the greatest executed British work of monumental architecture of the twentieth century".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyne Cot</span> WWI CWGC cemetery near Passendale, Belgium

Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground for the dead of the First World War in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. It is the largest cemetery for Commonwealth forces in the world, for any war. The cemetery and its surrounding memorial are located outside Passendale, near Zonnebeke in Belgium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larch Wood (Railway Cutting) Cemetery</span> WWI CWGC cemetery in Ypres, Belgium

Larch Wood Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front in Belgium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fabian Ware</span> British Army general and founder of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Major-General Sir Fabian Arthur Goulstone Ware was a British educator, journalist, and the founder of the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC), now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). He also served as Director of Education for the Transvaal Colony and editor of The Morning Post.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chester Farm Cemetery</span> WWI CWGC cemetery in Ypres, Belgium

Chester Farm is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Loos Memorial</span> WWI CWGC memorial in Pas-de-Calais, France

The Loos Memorial is a World War I memorial forming the sides and rear of Dud Corner Cemetery, located near the commune of Loos-en-Gohelle, in the Pas-de-Calais département of France. The memorial lists 20,610 names of British and Commonwealth soldiers with no known grave who were killed in the area during and after the Battle of Loos, which started on 25 September 1915. This memorial covers the same sector of the front as the Le Touret Memorial, with each memorial commemorating the dead either side of the date of the start of the Battle of Loos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuileries British Commonwealth War Graves Commission Cemetery</span> WWI CWGC cemetery in Ypres, Belgium

Tuileries British Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located near Ypres (Ieper) in Belgium on the Western Front.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hedge Row Trench Cemetery</span> CWGC cemetery in Ypres, Belgium

Hedge Row Trench Cemetery is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission burial ground for the dead of the First World War located near The Bluff south of Ypres (Ieper) in Belgium on the Western Front.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stone of Remembrance</span> Cenotaph in IWBC cemeteries

The Stone of Remembrance is a standardised design for war memorials that was designed in 1917 by the British architect Sir Edwin Lutyens for the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC). It was designed to commemorate the dead of World War I, to be used in IWGC war cemeteries containing 1,000 or more graves, or at memorial sites commemorating more than 1,000 war dead. Hundreds were erected following World War I, and it has since been used in cemeteries containing the Commonwealth dead of World War II as well. It is intended to commemorate those "of all faiths and none", and has been described as one of Lutyens' "most important and powerful works", with a "brooding, sentinel-like presence wherever used".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial</span> WWI CWGC cemetery in Nord, France

The V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery and Memorial is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) World War I cemetery and memorial. It is in the commune of Fromelles, in the Nord departement of France, about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) northwest of the village of Fromelles on the D22C road (rue Delval).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramscappelle Road Military Cemetery</span>

Founded in 1917, the Ramscappelle Road Military Cemetery is located two kilometers east of the city of Nieuwpoort in the province of West Flanders (West-Vlaanderen), Belgium. It is on the N367, the road which leads from Nieuwpoort to the village of Sint-Joris, near the intersection with Ramscappelle Road (Ramskapellestraat).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Kipling</span> Son of Rudyard Kipling

John Kipling was the only son of British author Rudyard Kipling. In the First World War, his father used his influence to get him a commission in the British Army despite being decisively rejected for poor eyesight. His death at the Battle of Loos caused his family immense grief.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memorial tablets to the British Empire dead of the First World War</span> Memorials to fallen military people

Between 1923 and 1936, the Imperial War Graves Commission erected a series of memorial tablets in French and Belgian cathedrals to commemorate the British Empire dead of the First World War. The tablets were erected in towns in which British Army or Empire troops had been quartered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Their name liveth for evermore</span> Biblical phrase commonly inscribed on war memorials

"Their name liveth for evermore" is a phrase from the Jewish book of Ecclesiasticus or Sirach, chapter 44, verse 14, widely inscribed on war memorials since the First World War.

References

  1. 1 2 Knowles, Elizabeth (2007). Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations. OUP Oxford. p. 108. ISBN   9780199208951 . Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Booth, Howard J. (2011). The Cambridge Companion to Rudyard Kipling. Cambridge University Press. p. 91. ISBN   9781107493636 . Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  3. "Frequently asked questions about our documents". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  4. Bolt, Andrew (28 October 2013). "Chiselling God from the Unknown Soldier's grave". Herald Sun. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  5. 1 2 "Solving the mystery of Kipling's son". BBC News. 2016. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  6. This organisation was changed the name to Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) in 1960.
  7. 1 2 "6 poetic stories from the CWGC archives". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  8. 1 2 Roberts, Andrew (2010). A History of the English-Speaking Peoples since 1900. Orion. p. 195. ISBN   9780297865247 . Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  9. Sheftall, Mark David (2010). Altered Memories of the Great War: Divergent Narratives of Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. I.B.Tauris. p. 146. ISBN   9780857710321 . Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  10. Adams, Jad (2012). Kipling. Haus Publishing. p. 111. ISBN   9781908323071.
  11. "Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God". Bible Hub. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  12. "Acts 15:18 that have been known for ages.'". Bible Hub. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  13. "Known Unto God". Centre for Public Christianity. 9 June 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  14. "Recessional". The Kipling Society. Retrieved 11 December 2018.
  15. "Plan for 'creepy' fake graves rejected". News Mail. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  16. Davies, Caroline (23 October 2018). "Epitaphs for first world war fallen offer glimpse of unprecedented loss". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  17. 1 2 Keegan, John (2 June 2006). "We'll miss our corners of a foreign field" . Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  18. Richards, David Alan (2007). Rudyard Kipling: The Books I Leave Behind. Yale University Press. p. 83. ISBN   978-0300126747 . Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  19. Maxwell, Tony (2009). Searching for the Queen's Cowboys: Travels in South Africa Filming a Documentary on Strathcona's Horse and the Anglo-Boer War. Tony Maxwell. p. 269. ISBN   9780968325612 . Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  20. "A Passenger Known Unto God – Nation". The Star (Malaysia). 22 August 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  21. "Adelaide Cemetery, Villers Bretonneux". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
  22. "Tomb of the Unknown Australian Soldier". Australian War Memorial . Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  23. "Funeral Service of The Unknown Australian Soldier - Prime Minister Paul Keating - 11 November 1993" (PDF). Paul Keating . Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  24. 1 2 3 "War Memorial to keep 'Known unto God' on Unknown Soldier's tomb". ABC News. 29 October 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2018.
  25. Campbell, Emma (4 November 2013). "All of them, one of us: the Unknown Australian Soldier". Australian War Memorial . Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  26. 1 2 Peake, Ross (29 October 2013). "'Known Unto God' to remain at Tomb of Unknown Soldier at War Memorial". The Canberra Times . Retrieved 2 January 2019.