A 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. Such tombs are located in many nations and are usually high-profile national monuments. Throughout history, many soldiers have died in war with their remains being unidentified. Following World War I, a movement arose to commemorate these soldiers with a single tomb, containing the body of one such unidentified soldier.
A 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. 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.[1] 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.[2]
The first known monument of an unknown soldier in Europe is the Landsoldaten ('Valiant Soldier Square') created in 1849 to commemorate the First Schleswig War, in Fredericia, Denmark.[3]
France and the United Kingdom
During the First World War, the British and French armies who were allies during the war jointly decided to bury soldiers themselves. 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".[4]
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. 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.[4] At the same time, a similar concern grew in France. In November 1916, a local officer of Le Souvenir français proposed the idea of burying "an unknown soldier" in the Panthéon. A formal bill was presented in Parliament in November 1918. The decision was voted into law in September 1919.[5]
The United Kingdom and France conducted services connected with their 'monumental' graves (as presumably newly conceived, and in any case approved, by their respective armies) on Armistice Day 1920 (the burial itself taking place later in January of the following year in France). In the UK, the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior was created at Westminster Abbey, while in France La tombe du soldat inconnu was placed in the Arc de Triomphe.
In the Philippines, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Libingan ng mga Bayani ("Cemetery of the Heroes") is the cemetery's most prominent structure.
Symbolism
The Tombs of the Unknown Soldiers typically contain the remains of a soldier who is unidentified (or "known but to God" as the stone is sometimes inscribed).[6] These remains are considered impossible to identify, and so serve as a symbol for all of a country's unknown dead wherever they fell in the war being remembered. The anonymity of the entombed soldier is the key symbolism of the monument; it could be the tomb of anyone who fell in service of the nation, and therefore serves as a monument symbolizing all of the sacrifices.
Jatiyo Sriti Shoudhor National Martyrs' Memorial is the national monument of Bangladesh for those who gave their lives in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, many of whom were buried in mass graves in that park. The monument is located in Savar, about 35km north-west of the capital, Dhaka. It was designed by Syed Mainul Hossain.
The tomb is located next to the National War Memorial in Confederation Square in Ottawa. It contains the remains of a Canadian soldier from World War I, who was buried near Vimy Ridge.[9]
A monument (not a tomb or a cenotaph) built in honor to the Chinese heroes died between 1840s (the First Opium War) and 1949 (founding of the People's Republic of China), who have given their lives in the many struggles to resist the enemy, domestic and foreign, to strive for the independence of the nation and the freedom of the people.
Contains remains of an unknown Czechoslovak soldier fallen at the Battle of Zborov as well as an unknown Czechoslovak soldier fallen at the Battle of Dukla, a part of a larger memorial to all Czechoslovak soldiers.
Cenotaph located in front of the Greek Parliament on Syntagma Square in Athens. Two quotations by Thucydides, from Pericles' Funeral Oration,[11][12] are inscribed on the retaining wall: Μία κλίνη κενὴ φέρεται ἐστρωμένη τῶν ἀφανῶν ("... and one bed is carried empty, made for the unknown ones"), and Ἀνδρῶν ἐπιφανῶν πᾶσα γῆ τάφος ("The whole earth is the burial ground of famous men"). The inscriptions flank a central sculpture in low relief, depicting a dying hoplite. The names of battlefields where Greeks have fought since independence are inscribed on the monument.
The Memorial Stone of Heroes (Hősök emlékköve) is a low stone cenotaph surrounded by an ornamental iron chain. The cenotaph is dedicated "To the memory of the heroes who gave their lives for the freedom of our people and our national independence."
Burning in a shrine under the arch of India Gate since 1971 is the Amar Jawan Jyoti (the flame of the immortal soldier) which marks the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The shrine itself is a black marble cenotaph with a rifle placed on its barrel, crested by a soldier's helmet. Each face of the cenotaph has inscribed in gold the words "Amar Jawan" (Immortal Warrior) in Hindi (Devanagri script). The Prime Minister of India pays homage to the country's fallen soldiers along with the Chiefs of Staff of each arm of the Armed Forces on each Republic Day of India.
Three monuments in Zawra Park commemorate Iraq's fallen soldiers; The Monument to the Unknown Soldier (pictured), the Victory Arch (completed in 1989) and the Al-Shaheed Monument (also known as the Martyrs' Monument, completed in 1983). The Monument to the Unknown Soldier was constructed between 1979 and 1982, and replaced an earlier Unknown Soldier's Monument built in 1959 in a different location, but dismantled when the current monument was inaugurated.
On 6 November 2004, the remains of an unknown New Zealand soldier were exhumed from the (CWGC) Caterpillar Valley Cemetery, and laid to rest in the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in Wellington, New Zealand. He represents over 18,000 members of New Zealand forces who lost their lives during the First World War. A special headstone marks his original resting place in Plot 14, Row A, Grave 27.
Constructed as the arcade of Saxon Palace, which was destroyed by the Germans in 1944. Contains the remains of a soldier who died between 1918 and 1920.
Housed within the Chapter House of Batalha Monastery. It contains the remains of two unknown World War I soldiers; one from the battlefields of Flanders, and one from the African theater, who were interred on 6 April 1921.[16]
Popularly known as the Obelisco ("Obelisk"), it is built on the same place where General Joachim Murat ordered the execution of numerous Spaniards after the Dos de Mayo Uprising of 1808. Originally inaugurated on 2 May 1840, it was re-inaugurated on 22 November 1985, by Juan Carlos I of Spain as a remembrance to fallen Spaniards. An eternal flame fuelled by gas has been constantly burning on the front of the monument.
Situated next to the Santa Maria del Mar church, the memorial stands in the center of a square that was used as a mass grave after the fall of Barcelona in the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714. It has a special significance to catalan nationalism as a symbol of those who fought against the Bourbons to retain Catalonia's laws and freedoms. Today, an eternal flame burns atop a metal structure with inscriptions that remember the unknown soldiers who died defending the city and the country.
he Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Arabic: ضريح الجندي المجهول) is a war memorial, dedicated to the Syrian soldiers killed during battle. It is visited every year by the President of Syria on Martyrs' Day (May 6). Two Quran verses are engraved into the monument:
Think not of those who are slain in God's Way as dead. Nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the Presence of their Lord; They rejoice in the Bounty provided by God: and with regard to those left behind, who have not yet joined them (in their bliss), the (Martyrs) glory in the fact that on them is no fear, nor have they (cause to) grieve.
Inaugurated in 1967 in honor of the Oriental Revolution its inscription reads in Spanish: "The Fatherland pays tribute to its anonymous heroes, who in the solitude of the fields lost their lives in the sacrifice for their ideals".
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. The town is located on the site of the ancient city Antiphrai which was built by the Romans.(Greek: Ἀντίφραι).
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, United States is the burial site of a World War I soldier there whose remains were unidentifiable.
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.
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a tomb situated before the National War Memorial in Confederation Square, Ottawa, Ontario. The tomb is dedicated to Canadian service members, and holds the remains of an unidentified Canadian soldier who died in France during the First World War; selected from a Commonwealth War Grave near Vimy, in the vicinity where the Battle of Vimy Ridge took place. A similar memorial was installed in June of 2024 at the National War Memorial in St. John's, Newfoundland to contain the unidentified Great War remains of a soldier of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment.
An eternal flame is a flame, lamp or torch that burns for an indefinite time. Most eternal flames are ignited and tended intentionally, but some are natural phenomena caused by natural gas leaks, peat fires and coal seam fires, all of which can be initially ignited by lightning, piezoelectricity or human activity, some of which have burned for hundreds or thousands of years.
Mount Herzl, also Har ha-Zikaron, is the site of Israel's national cemetery and other memorial and educational facilities, found on the west side of Jerusalem beside the Jerusalem Forest.
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".
The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior is part of the New Zealand National War Memorial on Buckle Street, Wellington.
The Unknown Warrior is an unidentified member of the British Imperial armed forces who died on the western front during the First World War. He is interred in a grave at Westminster Abbey, also known as the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior.
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).
The Cenotaph is a war memorial on Whitehall in London, England. Designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, it was unveiled in 1920 as the United Kingdom's national memorial to the dead of Britain and the British Empire of the First World War, was rededicated in 1946 to include those of the Second World War, and has since come to represent the Commonwealth casualties from those and subsequent conflicts. The word cenotaph is derived from Greek, meaning 'empty tomb'. Most of the dead were buried close to where they fell; thus, the Cenotaph symbolises their absence and is a focal point for public mourning. The original temporary Cenotaph was erected in 1919 for a parade celebrating the end of the First World War, at which more than 15,000 servicemen, including French and American soldiers, saluted the monument. More than a million people visited the site within a week of the parade.
World War I is remembered and commemorated by various war memorials, including civic memorials, larger national monuments, war cemeteries, private memorials and a range of utilitarian designs such as halls and parks, dedicated to remembering those involved in the conflict. Huge numbers of memorials were built in the 1920s and 1930s, with around 176,000 erected in France alone. This was a new social phenomenon and marked a major cultural shift in how nations commemorated conflicts. Interest in World War I and its memorials faded after World War II, and did not increase again until the 1980s and 1990s, which saw the renovation of many existing memorials and the opening of new sites. Visitor numbers at many memorials increased significantly, while major national and civic memorials continue to be used for annual ceremonies remembering the war.
The North Front Cemetery is a cemetery located in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar. Also known as the Gibraltar Cemetery and the Garrison Cemetery, it is the only graveyard still in use in Gibraltar. It is also the only Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemetery in Gibraltar. The two CWGC monuments, the Gibraltar Memorial and the Gibraltar Cross of Sacrifice, are positioned nearby at the junction of Winston Churchill Avenue and Devil's Tower Road.
The United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea, located at Tanggok in the Nam District, City of Busan, Republic of Korea, is a burial ground for United Nations Command (UNC) casualties of the Korean War. It contains 2,300 graves and is the only United Nations cemetery in the world. Laid out over 14 hectares, the graves are set out in 22 sites designated by the nationalities of the buried servicemembers.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a war memorial located in Syntagma Square in Athens, in front of the Old Royal Palace. It is a cenotaph dedicated to the Greek soldiers killed during war. It was sculpted between 1930 and 1932 by sculptor Fokion Rok.
Caterpillar Valley Cemetery is a World War I Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Longueval, France.
The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier holds an unidentified member of the French armed forces killed during the First World War, to symbolically commemorate all soldiers who have died for France throughout history. It was installed in Paris under the Arc de Triomphe on 11 November 1920, simultaneously with the interment of a British unknown soldier in Westminster Abbey, making both graves the first examples of a tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the first to honour the unknown dead of the First World War.
1 2 Henry Allingham, Dennis Goodwin (2011). Kitchener's Last Volunteer: The Life of Henry Allingham, the Oldest Surviving Veteran of the Great War. p. 132. Random House, 1976
↑ (in French) Jean-Yves Le Naour, Le soldat inconnu: la guerre, la mort, la mémoire, Gallimard, 2008, p. 20
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