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| Unknown Warrior's rose features in national mourning exhibition | Unknown Warrior's rose features in national mourning exhibition |
| (6 months later) | |
| A withered rose that fell from a wreath on the coffin of the Unknown Warrior, and was sent to an orphan who had lost his father in the first world war and his mother to the Spanish flu epidemic, is to be displayed at the Imperial War Museum North as part of an exhibition about the national mourning in the aftermath of the war. | A withered rose that fell from a wreath on the coffin of the Unknown Warrior, and was sent to an orphan who had lost his father in the first world war and his mother to the Spanish flu epidemic, is to be displayed at the Imperial War Museum North as part of an exhibition about the national mourning in the aftermath of the war. |
| The rose formed part of one of the huge wreaths that covered the coffin of the nameless body when it was brought back to England in 1920 for a state funeral in Westminster Abbey, representing the British casualties whose remains were never found. | The rose formed part of one of the huge wreaths that covered the coffin of the nameless body when it was brought back to England in 1920 for a state funeral in Westminster Abbey, representing the British casualties whose remains were never found. |
| It fell from a wreath given by the British army as the coffin was lifted from the deck of the destroyer Verdun on to the quayside at Dover, and was picked up by William Chandler, a dock worker who sent it to his 12-year-old nephew, Harold Aldin. | It fell from a wreath given by the British army as the coffin was lifted from the deck of the destroyer Verdun on to the quayside at Dover, and was picked up by William Chandler, a dock worker who sent it to his 12-year-old nephew, Harold Aldin. |
| The boy and his sister were by then living with their grandparents. Their father was an early casualty, dying at Ypres on 27 October 1914. His body was never recovered, and his name is one of the thousands inscribed on the Menin Gate in the town near the battlefield. Two years later the children lost their mother to the flu epidemic, which killed more people than the war. | The boy and his sister were by then living with their grandparents. Their father was an early casualty, dying at Ypres on 27 October 1914. His body was never recovered, and his name is one of the thousands inscribed on the Menin Gate in the town near the battlefield. Two years later the children lost their mother to the flu epidemic, which killed more people than the war. |
| The rose was a modest relic of wreaths so elaborate and bulky that it took four soldiers to carry each one and wrestle them into a railway carriage carrying them with the coffin to London. | The rose was a modest relic of wreaths so elaborate and bulky that it took four soldiers to carry each one and wrestle them into a railway carriage carrying them with the coffin to London. |
| Aldin’s daughter, Marguerite Lobban recalls that her father kept the rose carefully all his life. He showed it to her with pride when she was a little girl, in the wooden box he made himself to hold it and the letter explaining its history. | Aldin’s daughter, Marguerite Lobban recalls that her father kept the rose carefully all his life. He showed it to her with pride when she was a little girl, in the wooden box he made himself to hold it and the letter explaining its history. |
| She decided to donate the box and its contents to the museum when she began to worry about its condition. “We could see that the rose was beginning to deteriorate, and I felt I didn’t know how to care for it properly, but it was a nice link to have with him and I hoped other people would like to see it too.” | She decided to donate the box and its contents to the museum when she began to worry about its condition. “We could see that the rose was beginning to deteriorate, and I felt I didn’t know how to care for it properly, but it was a nice link to have with him and I hoped other people would like to see it too.” |
| In a poignant ceremony before the museum received what the catalogue describes as “dried rose on a stem with three petals detached”, the flower was briefly reunited with the Unknown Warrior, laid on his tomb in the abbey. | In a poignant ceremony before the museum received what the catalogue describes as “dried rose on a stem with three petals detached”, the flower was briefly reunited with the Unknown Warrior, laid on his tomb in the abbey. |
| The exhibition, Lest We Forget, deals with the proliferation of memorials after a war that touched every household in the country, from grand official monuments to mantelpiece shrines of photographs and cherished personal possessions returned from the fighting. | The exhibition, Lest We Forget, deals with the proliferation of memorials after a war that touched every household in the country, from grand official monuments to mantelpiece shrines of photographs and cherished personal possessions returned from the fighting. |
| It will include official government commissions from major artists including John Singer Sargent’s monumental Gassed, and works by Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer and Wyndham Lewis, all originally intended for a national war memorial, the Hall of Remembrance, which was never built. | It will include official government commissions from major artists including John Singer Sargent’s monumental Gassed, and works by Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer and Wyndham Lewis, all originally intended for a national war memorial, the Hall of Remembrance, which was never built. |
| Instead, in the face of public anger at the decision not to repatriate the dead, the decision was taken to bring back one unknown casualty to represent all those lost, described as a warrior rather than a soldier to represent all the armed forces. | Instead, in the face of public anger at the decision not to repatriate the dead, the decision was taken to bring back one unknown casualty to represent all those lost, described as a warrior rather than a soldier to represent all the armed forces. |
| The body was chosen from six exhumed from different battlefields and brought together by George Kendall, an army chaplain whose autobiography Daring All Things, published posthumously in 2016, revealed that asked many times over the rest of his life for clues as to their identity, but always replied that “the knowledge I have will die with me”. | The body was chosen from six exhumed from different battlefields and brought together by George Kendall, an army chaplain whose autobiography Daring All Things, published posthumously in 2016, revealed that asked many times over the rest of his life for clues as to their identity, but always replied that “the knowledge I have will die with me”. |
| Lest We Forget opens at IWM North on 27 July and runs until February 2019 | Lest We Forget opens at IWM North on 27 July and runs until February 2019 |
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