Mrs O’Keeffe

We are very excited to announce a special tribute to the fallen and to one man's remarkable desire to ensure that bereaved families would have somewhere to honour those with no known grave. Between 7–11 November 2026, The Veterans Charity will undertake an extraordinary tribute to The Unknown Warrior and the man who conceived the idea, honouring all those who have fallen in service and the families who have carried the weight of their loss. We will retrace his poignant journey home in November 1920, following the same route from northern France to Westminster Abbey, by road, sea, rail and horse-drawn wagon. Our journey will take us: -By road from Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise to Boulogne. -By sea across the Channel on board a Royal Navy vessel. -By Southeastern Rail to London Victoria Station. -By a WW1 horse-drawn GS Wagon to Westminster Abbey. There, on 11 November, our tribute will culminate in a special wreath-laying service which will be presided over by the Canon-in-Residence. We are extremely proud to be working with the Royal Logistic Corps Horse-Drawn Heritage Team and serving Royal Navy personnel, whose generous support is helping us bring this remarkable act of Remembrance to life. Four wreaths will be at the heart of our tribute, representing the unidentified fallen servicemen brought from the battlefields to a temporary chapel in St-Pol in 1920. From those four, one was selected to become The Unknown Warrior. In a symbolic recreation of that selection, one of our wreaths will be chosen to make the journey to Westminster Abbey. The remaining three will undertake their own special journeys to Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, to be laid at national war memorials in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh respectively — honouring the fallen of each nation. The Scottish wreath’s journey will continue beyond Edinburgh in a deeply personal tribute to the Reverend David Railton, the Army chaplain whose vision gave us the Grave of The Unknown Warrior. It will travel to Fort William to honour him near the site of the railway accident that tragically claimed his life in 1955, before continuing to his grave in North Ballachulish, where it will be laid in gratitude and remembrance. We will be filming each stage of the journey, sharing its story and some of its most poignant moments so that you can follow this tribute with us. Our heartfelt thanks go to everyone helping make it possible: the Mayor and community of St-Pol-sur-Ternoise; the Royal Logistic Corps Horse-Drawn Heritage Team and The Royal Logistic Corps RHQ; the Royal Navy crews of HMS ******* and HMS *******; St James's Park; The Army in London - HQ London District; South Eastern Railway; Network Rail ; Kent And East Sussex Steam Railway; and the Dean and staff at Westminster Abbey. Every mile will honour a life lost. Every wreath will carry a promise to remember. Lest We Forget. #routesofremembrance