Beneath the Arc de Triomphe rests one of France’s most powerful symbols of remembrance: the remains of a single French soldier slain on the battlefield of France.

The unknown soldier was buried on November 11, 1920, two years after the end of the ironically named ‘War to End All Wars’.

Although his name is unknown, he represents and honours  more than a million French soldiers who died during this conflict.

HOW WAS THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER CHOSEN?

To chose one ‘unknown’ soldier, 8 bodies of slain soldiers from battlegrounds across France – Flandres, Artois, Somme, Marne, Chemin des Dames, Champagne, Verdun, Lorraine and Alsace – were unearthed with the permission of their families. They were placed in caskets and transported to the citadel of Verdun, one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Great War. The coffins were then moved to Paris.

There, Auguste Thin, a young corporal of the 132nd Regiment, was presented with a bunch of flowers and asked to place them on one of the eight coffins.
With that simple gesture, the Unknown Soldier was chosen.

When asked why he had chosen this particular one, he said, “Il me vint une pensée simple. J’appartiens au 6e corps. En additionnant les chiffres de mon régiment, le 132, c’est également le chiffre 6 que je retiens. Ma décision est prise : ce sera le 6e cercueil que je rencontrerai.“ (A simple thought occurred to me. I belong to the 6th Company. By adding together the numbers of my regiment, the 132th, it is also the number 6 that comes up. My decision is made: it will be the 6th coffin that I come across).

First lit in 1923, an eternal flame, a burning torch, is rekindled every evening at 6.30.

DID YOU KNOW?

The term, ‘un poilu’, (hairy) was used informally to describe a French World War I infantryman. Read on to find out why.
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