David Railton
In 1916 a young padre noticed in a back garden in Armentì, an inked inscription on a makeshift wooden cross which simply read "An unknown warrior of the Black Watch". David Railton was struck by the loneliness of death. Shortly after the war David wrote to the Dean of Westminster, Dean Ryle, and made the suggestion about the unknown soldier. The Dean of Westminster made no hesitation to make this suggestion a reality. "We shall bring a single British soldier home from the muddy graves of Northern France to have a funeral of the highest standard" he said. The unknown soldiers tomb lies at the west end of the nave in Westminster Abbey. The grave, which contains soil from France, is covered by a slab of black Belgian marble from Namur. On it appears the inscription:

Beneath this stone rests the body
OF A BRITISH WARRIOR
brought from France to lie among
the most illustrious of the land
and buried here on armistice day
11 Nov: 1920 in the presence of
HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V
his ministers of state
the chiefs of his forces
and a vast concourse of the nation.

Thus are commemorated the many
multitudes who during the great
war of 1914-1918 gave the most that
man can give, life itself.
FOR GOD
FOR KING AND COUNTRY
for the sacred cause of justice and
the freedom of the world.

They buried him among the kings because
he had done good toward God and toward
His house

On her wedding day in 1919 the Queen Mother placed her wedding bouquet on the coffin for her own brother who never returned from France. 'The Padre's Flag' which originally covered the coffin now hangs in St George's Chapel.