The Unknown Warrior The Unknown Warrior The British grave of The Unknown Warrior (often known as 'The Tomb of The Unknown Warrior') holds an unidentified British soldier killed on a European battlefield during the First World War. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, London on 11 November 1920, simultaneously with a similar interment of a French unknown soldier at the Arc de Triomphe in France, making both graves the first to honour the unknown dead of the First World War. It is the first example of a tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The idea of a Tomb of the Unknown Warrior was first
Turn in one's grave unknown in the history of this country ; a thing which would have scared all former politicians ; a thing, which, if our old Whig politicians were now to hear, they would turn in their graves." One of the earliest uses is found in William Thackeray's 1849 work "The History of Pendennis", where Mrs. Wapshot, upset by a man's advances on the widow of Mr. Pendennis whom the widow had "never liked," says it's "enough to make poor Mr. Pendennis turn in his grave." Another early use of the phrase is in historian James Bryce's 1888 work "The American Commonwealth"