As it passed over the gangway the boatswain’s mate piped the body on board with honours generally accorded to admirals and captains. Then the body was taken up by its escort of British soldiers representing all parts of the Empire and carried on board.
Marshal Foch and General Macdonagh both delivered short speeches extolling the work of the British and Allied armies, and underlining the deathless significance of today’s ceremony. There was a short pause before the coffin was carried on board. The crew of the ship were drawn up facing the jetty and presented arms on the arrival of the wagons containing the body. On her after-gun platform gleamed the proud motto of the ship: “On ne passe pas”. When the harbour was reached the Verdun which had arrived somewhat late owing to fog, was lying alongside the jetty. The massed drums thundered out the opening bars of Chopin’s ‘Funeral March’, which was taken up by the bands along the entire route. “At a quarter to eleven the procession began to move towards the harbour. The events are described in great detail in the following day’s ‘Yorkshire Post’. The coffin of the Unknown Warrior spent the night of 9 November being watched over by British and French soldiers in the thirteenth century castle at Boulogne before being transferred with great respect and ceremony to HMS Verdun. The journey of the body to British soil on 10 November 1920 was linked to the commemoration of the second anniversary of the Armistice. The Unknown Warrior, buried at Westminster Abbey, has huge symbolic importance as the representative of all the soldiers, sailors and airmen who lost their lives during the War. HMS Verdun’s other major link to the War came in November 1920, after the conflict had ended, when she was given the honour of carrying the body of the Unknown Warrior back to Britain. The Flotilla was attached to the Grand Fleet until March 1918, when it became part of the Battle Cruiser Force. During the final year of the conflict she served with the Royal Navy’s 13th Destroyer Flotilla. HMS Verdun was completed in November 1917, one of three Admiralty ‘V’ class destroyers built at Hebburn (the others being HMS Versatile and HMS Verulam). Launch party of HMS Verdun, 21 August 1917 (TWAM ref.
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