A hundred years ago, the fighting of the First World War, a global conflict in which

it's estimated more than 16 million people lost their lives, finally ended.

An armistice was declared and after four years of brutal warfare, the guns and artillery

was silenced.

Here in London's Grand Gothic Church, Westminster Abbey,

just a few minutes walk from Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament,

a simple grave is set into the floor, inscribed with the words,

beneath this stone rests the body of the British warrior, unknown by name or rank,

brought from France to lie among the most illustrious in the land

and buried here on armistest day, the 11th of November 1920. I'm Wierras Stewart and in this program for the BBC I'll be telling the story of how

this unknown warrior from the First World War whose anonymity was so carefully protected,

came to be buried here in such grandeur,

and what the symbol of the unknown soldier means

for people around the world today.

This is a very special thing and whoever conceived the idea of this really understood the pain and the loss not only of losing

someone but of not getting their body back or knowing where they are buried.

He is the universal son of all those who perished in the First World War.

So many people would have known someone who died.

You know, as a friend, as a lover, as a husband, as a brother, as an uncle, as a father.

This is what people had lost.

They had lost their own flesh and blood.

And now there was a feeling that flesh and blood is buried.

...