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Authors: Rupert Colley
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Mata Hari 1876–1917
Born to a wealthy Dutch family, Gertrud Margarete Zelle responded to a newspaper advertisement from a Rudolf MacLeod, a Dutch army officer of Scottish descent, seeking a wife. The pair married in 1895 and moved to the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) where they had two children. Their son died aged two from syphilis, most likely caught from his father – their daughter would die a similar death, aged twenty-one. Twenty years older, MacLeod was an abusive husband and in 1902, on their return to the Netherlands, they separated.
Mata Hari
Zelle moved to Paris, where she started to earn a living by modelling and dancing, changing her name to Mata Hari. Exotically dressed, she became a huge success and was feted by the powerful and rich of Paris, taking on a number of influential lovers. She travelled numerous times between France and the Netherlands. Her movements and liaisons however caused suspicion.
Arrested by the British, Hari was interrogated. She admitted to passing German information on to the French. In turn, the French discovered evidence, albeit of doubtful authenticity, that she was spying for the Germans. Returning to Paris, Hari was then arrested by the French and accused of being a double agent. The evidence against her was insubstantial, but she was nevertheless found guilty and executed, aged forty-one on 15 October 1917.
The Unknown Warrior
The vicar of Margate in Kent, the Reverend David Railton, was stationed as a Padre on the Western Front when he noticed a temporary grave with the inscription, ‘An Unknown British Soldier’. Moved by this simple epitaph, he suggested an idea to the Dean of Westminster, who passed it onto Buckingham Palace. The idea of a tomb of the Unknown Soldier was well received and given the go ahead.
The Unknown Warrior, Westminster Abbey
On 9 November 1920, the remains of six unidentified British soldiers were exhumed – one each from six different battlefields (Aisne, Arras, Cambrai, Marne, Somme, and Ypres). The six corpses were transported to a chapel near Ypres, where they were each covered by the Union flag. There, in the company of a Padre (not Reverend Railton), a blindfolded officer entered the chapel and touched one of the bodies.
Placed in a coffin, the chosen soldier was taken back to England via Boulogne, and from there across the Channel on board the HMS Verdun (named after the French battle). A train transported it to London. All along the way, the body was afforded pomp and ceremony – processions, gun salutes and, at Boulogne, a salute from Marshal Foch.
Large, silent crowds had assembled to witness the six-horse procession wind its way to The Mall, where the king had unveiled the newly erected Cenotaph. The King and his entourage then followed the cortège to Westminster Abbey where, waiting, was a guard of honour consisting of 100 holders of the Victoria Cross and 100 women who had lost both their husbands and sons during the war.
After a brief service, the coffin was lowered into the grave, ‘amongst the kings’, and sprinkled with earth brought back from the Western Front. It was covered with a stone slab with the simple inscription, ‘An Unknown Soldier’. The following year, the stone was replaced by a slab of Belgium marble and fully inscribed in capitals with text composed by the Dean of Westminster:
BENEATH THIS STONE RESTS THE BODY
OF A BRITISH WARRIOR
UNKNOWN BY NAME OR RANK
BROUGHT FROM FRANCE TO LIE AMONG
THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS OF THE LAND
AND BURIED HERE ON ARMISTICE DAY
11 NOV 1920, IN THE PRESENCE OF
HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V
HIS MINISTERS OF STATE
THE CHIEFS OF HIS FORCES
AND A VAST CONCOURSE OF THE NATION
THUS ARE COMMEMORATED THE MANY
MULTITUDES WHO DURING THE GREAT
WAR OF 1914–1918 GAVE THE MOST THAT
MAN CAN GIVE LIFE ITSELF
FOR GOD
FOR KING AND COUNTRY
FOR LOVED ONES HOME AND EMPIRE
FOR THE SACRED CAUSE OF JUSTICE AND
THE FREEDOM OF THE WORLD
THEY BURIED HIM AMONG THE KINGS
Mata Hari 1876–1917
Born to a wealthy Dutch family, Gertrud Margarete Zelle responded to a newspaper advertisement from a Rudolf MacLeod, a Dutch army officer of Scottish descent, seeking a wife. The pair married in 1895 and moved to the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) where they had two children. Their son died aged two from syphilis, most likely caught from his father – their daughter would die a similar death, aged twenty-one. Twenty years older, MacLeod was an abusive husband and in 1902, on their return to the Netherlands, they separated.
Mata Hari
Zelle moved to Paris, where she started to earn a living by modelling and dancing, changing her name to Mata Hari. Exotically dressed, she became a huge success and was feted by the powerful and rich of Paris, taking on a number of influential lovers. She travelled numerous times between France and the Netherlands. Her movements and liaisons however caused suspicion.
Arrested by the British, Hari was interrogated. She admitted to passing German information on to the French. In turn, the French discovered evidence, albeit of doubtful authenticity, that she was spying for the Germans. Returning to Paris, Hari was then arrested by the French and accused of being a double agent. The evidence against her was insubstantial, but she was nevertheless found guilty and executed, aged forty-one on 15 October 1917.
The Unknown Warrior
The vicar of Margate in Kent, the Reverend David Railton, was stationed as a Padre on the Western Front when he noticed a temporary grave with the inscription, ‘An Unknown British Soldier’. Moved by this simple epitaph, he suggested an idea to the Dean of Westminster, who passed it onto Buckingham Palace. The idea of a tomb of the Unknown Soldier was well received and given the go ahead.
The Unknown Warrior, Westminster Abbey
On 9 November 1920, the remains of six unidentified British soldiers were exhumed – one each from six different battlefields (Aisne, Arras, Cambrai, Marne, Somme, and Ypres). The six corpses were transported to a chapel near Ypres, where they were each covered by the Union flag. There, in the company of a Padre (not Reverend Railton), a blindfolded officer entered the chapel and touched one of the bodies.
Placed in a coffin, the chosen soldier was taken back to England via Boulogne, and from there across the Channel on board the HMS Verdun (named after the French battle). A train transported it to London. All along the way, the body was afforded pomp and ceremony – processions, gun salutes and, at Boulogne, a salute from Marshal Foch.
Large, silent crowds had assembled to witness the six-horse procession wind its way to The Mall, where the king had unveiled the newly erected Cenotaph. The King and his entourage then followed the cortège to Westminster Abbey where, waiting, was a guard of honour consisting of 100 holders of the Victoria Cross and 100 women who had lost both their husbands and sons during the war.
After a brief service, the coffin was lowered into the grave, ‘amongst the kings’, and sprinkled with earth brought back from the Western Front. It was covered with a stone slab with the simple inscription, ‘An Unknown Soldier’. The following year, the stone was replaced by a slab of Belgium marble and fully inscribed in capitals with text composed by the Dean of Westminster:
BENEATH THIS STONE RESTS THE BODY
OF A BRITISH WARRIOR
UNKNOWN BY NAME OR RANK
BROUGHT FROM FRANCE TO LIE AMONG
THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS OF THE LAND
AND BURIED HERE ON ARMISTICE DAY
11 NOV 1920, IN THE PRESENCE OF
HIS MAJESTY KING GEORGE V
HIS MINISTERS OF STATE
THE CHIEFS OF HIS FORCES
AND A VAST CONCOURSE OF THE NATION
THUS ARE COMMEMORATED THE MANY
MULTITUDES WHO DURING THE GREAT
WAR OF 1914–1918 GAVE THE MOST THAT
MAN CAN GIVE LIFE ITSELF
FOR GOD
FOR KING AND COUNTRY
FOR LOVED ONES HOME AND EMPIRE
FOR THE SACRED CAUSE OF JUSTICE AND
THE FREEDOM OF THE WORLD
THEY BURIED HIM AMONG THE KINGS
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