Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Throughout history, many soldiers have died in wars without their remains being identified. In modern times, nations have developed the practice of having a symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier that represents the war grave of those unidentified soldiers. They usually contain the remains of a dead soldier who is unidentified (or "known but to God" as the stone is sometimes inscribed) and thought to be impossible ever to identify, so that he might serve as a symbol for all of the unknown dead wherever they fell. The anonymity of the entombed soldier is key to the symbolism of the monument - since their identity is unknown, it could theoretically be the tomb of anyone who fell in service of the nation in question, and therefore serves as a monument to "all" of their sacrifices. Much work goes into trying to find a certain soldier, and to verify that it is indeed one of the relevant nation's soldiers.

History

Perhaps the first memorial of this kind in the world is the 1858 "Landsoldaten" ("The Foot Soldier") monument of the First War of Schleswig in Fredericia, Denmark. Another early memorial of this kind is the 1866 memorial to the unknown dead of the American Civil War.

The modern trend was started by the United Kingdom in 1920 when she buried an Unknown Warrior on behalf of all First World War British Empire forces in Westminster Abbey. The coffin was followed into the abbey by the King-Emperor, George V and escorted by a guard of honour formed of one hundred recipients of the Victoria Cross [ [http://www.westminster-abbey.org/library/burial/warrior.htm Description at the Westminster Abbey website] ] . Part of the inscription on the stone reads:

:"They buried him among the kings Because he Had done good toward God and Toward His house" [Adapted from "2 Chronicles", Chap 24, Verse 16: "And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and toward God and his house."]

Other nations followed this example. A famous tomb is the one in France under the Arc de Triomphe that was installed in 1921 honouring the unknown dead of the First World War, or the one in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada shadowed by the Canadian War Memorial.

These tombs are also used to commemorate the unidentified fallen of later wars. Monuments have been built as recently as 1982 in the case of Iraq, 1993 in the case of Australia, and 2004 in the case of New Zealand.

National examples

References

External links

* [http://www.assistens.dk/bissen.htm Landsoldaten]

Fossar de les Moreres