Villagetributetothebrigadierwho chose nation’s Unknown Warrior
THE UNKNOWN Warrior has for a century been a symbol of united grief and of every parent’s loss on the bitter battlefields of war.
As the nation paused in stillness yesterday to remember 100 years since his burial, a small gathering formed at a simple gravestone in the small village churchyard in Kirkby Lonsdale.
There is a headstone here to mark the final resting place of Brigadier General Louis John Wyatt, who alone had chosen the anonymous son to bring home for burial that day.
In present times, where only a small ceremony can be held and where travel is discouraged, the poignant Reveille call came from a local painter and decorator, Simon Sedgwick, who also plays the bugle.
On such an anniversary, said Rachel Mitchell, branch co- ordinator for armed forces charity SSAFA, they would remember and honour the Brigadier in what ways they could.
“Life was very different 100 years ago, but we are still facing an invisible war,” she said. “We have to remember, to share that with our children. To know, for the surviving families, that it wasn’t all in vain, and that we will keep that memory alive.”
The grave of the Unknown Warrior, representing in anonymity all those British servicemen who lie in unmarked graves, today sits at the west end of the nave at Westminster Abbey.
Brigadier Wyatt, the General Officer in charge of troops in France and Flanders, had chosen the body from four servicemen in a makeshift chapel at St Pol in France. On November 11, 1920, the coffin had been drawn through London’s crowdlined streets by six black horses, before King George V placed a wreath of red roses and bay leaves on top.
The unidentified warrior, remembered with reverence and honoured by many thousands every year, is buried with a 16th century crusader’s sword and a handful of French soil.
In Kirkby Lonsdale, where Brigadier Wyatt’s own grave lies, six people gathered at a distance to honour the anniversary, in a service live- streamed online.
“Today the Unknown Warrior is a symbol, of all those hundreds and thousands of sons, husbands and brothers that didn’t come home,” said Mrs Mitchell, whose own husband serves in the Armed Forces. “It’s a symbol for everybody that is unable to visit a grave or a headstone, that they have a place to remember.”
Sir Andrew Gregory, chief executive of SSAFA, said: “Bringing to life the story of how the Unknown Warrior was selected, and Brigadier General Wyatt’s part in it, is of national importance, not least given the comfort many households drew after the Great War from the thought that the serviceperson might be their relative.
“Marking the 100th anniversary of the burial of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey is a time to reflect again on the service and the sacrifices made by those in our Armed Forces; SSAFA is there to honour that debt, as we were 100 years ago.”