The Unknown Warrior: it's history with Kent curator
This Armistice Day marks the centenary of the Cenotaph in Whitehall.
It was unveilied by King George V during a procession that took the Unknown Warrior to Westminster Abbey.
The idea behind the Unknown Warrior came from a curate in Kent. David Railton was a vicar in Folkestone and then later Margate.
Report by ITV News Meridian's Tony Green, who tells the story of this remarkable man:
A hundred years ago the nation was mourning the dead of the Great War. On November 11 1920 a coffin was carried through the streets of London to represent the thousands of servicemen killed abroad and buried in unmarked graves.
The Unknown Warrior.
It was the idea of Kent clergyman David Railton. Before being sent to the Western Front, he was the vicar here in Folkestone.
Daniel Keeling- Friends of Church of St Mary and St Eanswythe
Pamela Keeling - Friends of Church of St Mary and St Eanswythe
A mile long procession followed the warrior from the Medieval Castle at Boulogne to the harbour where the British destroyer HMS Verdun brought the body to Admiralty Pier in Dover.
As the ship came into view a 19 gun salute was fired from the castle. Six senior officers were pallbearers to take the unknown warrior to Dover Marine station.
The carriage that took the carried the coffin through the Kent countryside survives to this day, rescued and restored by the Kent and East Sussex Railway.
Brian Janes- Kent & East Sussex Railway:
The next day, a gun carriage took the coffin on its final journey to Westminster Abbey past the new permanent cenotaph replacing a plaster and wood structure from the year before. Thousands lined the streets in silence.
The King, the royal family and ministers of state walked behind as the cortege arrived at Westminster Abbey.
Flanked by a guard of honour of 100 war heroes, mostly recipients of the Victoria Cross the warrior was carried into the abbey. On top of the coffin was David Railton's Union Jack which he had used on the Western Front at makeshift altars and to cover the bodies of the fallen.
That day alone more than 2,000 people had visited the tomb and millions have visited since.
The bell from the ship that brought him home hangs nearby, it was only a matter of weeks since David Railton had written to the Dean of Westminster with his idea.
In his own account of the burial Railton wrote of: "the unity of all types of men at that grave. They see that in the long run, all men of goodwill are comrades in life, death and the hereafter."