'They buried him among the Kings' - Britain's Unknown Warrior

November 11 is Armistice Day, a day when at 11 o'clock, on 11 November 1918 the guns of World War One finally fell silent. World War One saw killing on an industrial, hitherto unimagined scale. Thousand of Britons stood in silence for two minutes at 11am earlier today to show their respects for servicemen and women killed in the two World Wars and more recent conflicts - including on campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Queen laid a huge wreath on the Unknown Warrior's grave at the end of a service at Westminster Abbey today.

A chaplain by the name of Reverend David Railton was the catalyst for having a national tomb for an unidentified serviceman who could be a focus for the bereaved, especially those whose bodies were never recovered.

Railton was awarded the Military Cross in 1916 for rescuing an officer and two men despite been under fire. Railton spoke to Herbert Edward Ryle, the dean of Westminster Abbey, about his idea of having an unknown British soldier interred at the abbey. Lloyd George supported the idea. A number of bodies (between four and six), were exhumed from battlefields in France where British soldiers had fallen, and placed in a plain coffin.

Brigadier-General L. J. Wyatt, the officer commanding troops in France and Flanders, selected a single coffin. The official Unknown Warrior was thus chosen and placed in a coffin which bore the inscription: 'A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914–1918 for King and Country'.

A union flag which belonged to Railton - and had been used during his church services at the Front - was draped on the oak coffin. The Unknown Warrior was brought to Britain on the destroyer HMS Verdun.

On November 11, 1920, the Unknown Warrior was drawn to the Cenotaph (pictured above). King George V placed a wreath on the coffin; and then after the Two Minutes Silence at 11:00am, the Unknown Warrior was transported to Westminster Abbey.

The tomb of the Unknown Warrior is buried at the west end of the nave in Westminster Abbey. The grave is covered with a slab of marble and contains soil from France. The marble is inscribed with the words: "They buried him among the Kings because he had done good toward God and toward his house." (2 Chronicles 24:16).

Visit the Royal British Legion website for more information about what you can do to support British service personnel - past and present - and their families.

Reverend Railton died in 1955.

Both the Cenotaph and Westminster Abbey feature on The Palace Trail audio downloadable tour of royal and monumental London.