The Unknown Warrior

For the steam locomotive, see LMS Patriot Class 5551 The Unknown Warrior.
Not to be confused with Unknown Soldier.

The Unknown Warrior
United Kingdom
The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior
For the unknown war dead, wherever they fell
Unveiled11 November 1920
Location51°29′58″N 0°7′39″W / 51.49944°N 0.12750°W / 51.49944; -0.12750
near 
London, England

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.

He was given a state funeral and buried on 11 November 1920, simultaneously with a similar interment of a French unknown soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in France, 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.

Officially, the buried man may be from the army, navy or airforce (hence the name warrior instead of soldier) and from any part of the British Empire at the time.[1] However, the National Army Museum notes that the UK Government had also previously confirmed that the interred was a soldier and that he was most likely from the British Isles, not the Empire.[2]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference WestAbbeyComm was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "The mysterious story of the Unknown Warrior". National Army Museum. Retrieved 14 July 2024.