Old Front Line
WW1 Podcast with Paul Reed
Remembrance: Unknown Warriors
Today is Armistice Day; a century ago in 1920, the body of the Unknown Warrior was laid to rest in Westminster Abbey. What lays behind this story, how was he selected, and what of the Unknown Warriors in our own connections to the Great War? A bonus episode for Armistice Day.
The Western Front Association has a special edition of their magazine Stand To! devoted to the Centenary of the Unknown Warrior. Membership of the WFA is recommended: visit their website to find out more.
The following are some books relating to the subject of the Missing of the Great War and the Unknown Warrior. Click on an image to be taken to the Amazon page. Buying books this well helps to support the Old Front Line podcast. Thank you!
Podcast Extras
The Unknown Warrior
All these images are courtesy of gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France.
11 Comments on “Remembrance: Unknown Warriors”
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Old Front Line 
Another wonderful listen and I really enjoyed hearing about your Aunty Wynn’s story, the personal ones are the most moving. Thanks for sharing as ever.
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Sincere thanks for this wonderful tribute to the unknown soldiers of the Great War. I was moved to tears by the story of your Aunty’s grief over the life that might have been lived together with this man, taken from her by war.
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Thank you, Kurt, it’s certainly a story that has never failed to move me over so many years.
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Very interesting and poignant details Paul, the amount of reverence that was put into the Unknown Warrior is very moving. Noted Camilla leaving a floral bouquet on the tomb at the end of the centenary service, so now understand the signifcance of the gesture. God bless your Aunty Wynn.
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Thanks, Damon. Yes, I miss her such a lot as I’ve got older.
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Certainly recommend the WFA magazine on the Unknown Warrior and another great podcast!
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Thanks, Niall!
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That was an interesting podcast. The start with Arthur Woolley and the finish with auntie Wynn made for a very poignant podcast, thanks for sharing.
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I was researching a local WW2 CWGC burial and found a letter in his father’s WW1 file, from his mother. She asked for news of her husband, who had been missing for eighteen months following the Battle of the Somme, because she wanted to remarry. They found him eventually, I believe he is at Caterpillar Valley. I’ve no doubt she mourned her first husband and it wouldn’t surprise me if her desire to move on was as much about financial security as companionship. There was no personalised inscription on her husband’s headstone. It made me wonder what it must have been like for those whose husbands were never found and who did not or could not “move on”.
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I’m catching up with the back catalogue of the podcast. I found this one especially moving. Your poor Aunty Wynn, its these story’s that bring the events of the Great War seem So very close and yet so far away. Keep up the good work.
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Thanks, John. Yes, poor old Aunty Wynn.
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