29 Sep 2024
Deep in the hallowed halls of Westminster Abbey, alongside kings and queens, scientists and explorers, poets and authors, is the final resting place of an unidentified soldier killed on the battlefields of the First World War.
The Unknown Warrior represents the thousands of individuals killed during the conflict, but what do you really know about his story?
Former RAF Tornado navigator and Sunday Times best-selling author John Nichol, who was shot down and captured during the 1991 Gulf War, will be bringing the history of this anonymous combatant to life in a theatre tour which comes to the Alban Arena next month.
The Unknown Warrior – A Personal Journey of Discovery and Remembrance, will use haunting visuals and an arousing soundscape as he retraces the Unknown Warrior’s journey home from the battlefields of Northern France.
He explained: “I will be telling the incredible story of how the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior came about in the aftermath of the First World War in 1920 when over one million British Empire soldiers had been killed, with over half a million having no known grave.
“There will be recreations of battle, emotive music and readings from the old letters from those who were there at the time. I’ll also be using accounts from people that I met, who can help us understand what it was like back then.
“I’ll be able to help people grasp what the tomb in Westminster Abbey means – how just one man came to represent the hundreds of thousands of the missing. I don’t want to say it will be educational because that sounds like something from school, but it’ll certainly be enlightening, entertaining and enthralling.
“I knew I wasn’t going to be able to speak to anybody involved because it happened 104 years ago. So, I decided I was going to retrace the journey, find out what it meant, how it happened, and to try to bring it to life.
“At Westminster Abbey, there are many, many hundreds of graves. The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior is the only one nobody ever steps on. Even the Royal Family, as they walk past it when they come in, never step on it. It’;s surrounded by a rampart of poppy crosses. It’s always the one which has got the biggest crowd around it. It’s still so significant today because it represents the missing, it represents loss. There are still people who have lost loved ones whose bodies were never recovered from the Falklands or from the Gulf War. So, there are modern unknown warriors, and it continues to be a place of reflection and memorial.”
The Unknown Warrior – A Personal Journey of Discovery and Remembrance comes to the Arena on October 16. For tickets visit https://everyonetheatres.com/whats-on/john-nichols-the-unknown-warrior-2/
