For years a mystery has engulfed Westminster Abbey’s Unknown Warrior over the fate of the other fallen troops considered for his commemorative burial.
The unidentified soldier had been selected from remains of a number of men killed in battle during World War I and brought to the military chapel at Saint-Pol in France.
While he became one Britain’s most famous military figures the other dead, not picked for the burial, were rumoured to have been dumped in a nearby shell hole.
But now the truth about what happened to the other men may have finally been unearthed in newly-discovered orders.
They suggest an officer was in fact ordered to arrange a night burial for them in Cagnicourt British Cemetery.
The commemorative grave of the Unknown Warrior inside Westminster Abbey in London
Cagnicourt British Cemetery in France, where the unselected soldiers are believed buried
He resigned from the service a few weeks later, which may have been sparked by the possibility they were buried in unmarked graves.
Brigadier General Louis John Wyatt has been featured in accounts as being the officer involved who made the selection.
Wyatt wrote in a letter in 1939 saying three bodies not selected were buried at the British cemetery of Saint-Pol.
The Times said this latest uncovered ‘secret’ document orders Fisher to arrange for an ambulance to be at Cagnicourt military cemetery then ‘reinter in the cemetery 3 bodies (graves having been dug)’.
The parade alongside the Cenotaph in London to lay the Unknown Solider to rest
A ticket to Westminster Abbey for the funeral service for the Unknown Warrior in London
It was found by Jason Davidson and Peter Roch, of Squeaky Pedal productions, working with Mark Scott and Justin Saddington, of the National Army Museum in Captain Fisher’s possessions.
They are going to be displayed in the National Army Museum in London in a new exhibition.
In 2014 another document explaining how the Unknown Soldier’s body was selected was revealed by the grandson of Army chaplain George Kendall.
Tim Kendall said: ‘My grandfather selected six corpses without identification marks. He made sure all the coffins looked exactly the same and that there was no evidence of where the bodies came from.’
The identity of the Unknown Warrior has never and can never be revealed due to the selection
Archive: The back page of the Daily Mail from November 12, 1920, with pictures of the funeral
The 46-year-old charity adviser said that when he found the story in a box left by his grandfather, he realised: 우리카지노 ‘This is a very significant part of British history.’
It said ‘Bodies were taken to the headquarters at St Pol, near Arras. Those who awaited the bodies did not know from where they had come.
‘The six coffins were placed in a hut and each was covered with a Union Jack. All night they rested on trestles, with nothing to distinguish one from the other.
‘The door of the hut was locked and 우리카지노계열쿠폰 sentries posted outside.
‘In the morning a general entered the hut, placed his hand on one of the flag-shrouded coffins and 카지노사이트쿠폰 the body therein became the Unknown Warrior.’
Another chaplain, Reverend David Railton, is said to have got the idea for the Unknown Warrior after noticing a grave in France in 1916 with a cross and the words ‘An Unknown British Soldier’.
Four years later in 1920 he wrote to the Dean of Westminster, Herbert Ryle, with his idea, and the body was chosen from servicemen exhumed from four battle areas – Arras, Ypres, the Aisne and the Somme.
It is said that Brigadier General L.J. Wyatt chose the body at random.