Why is the unknown soldier at the war memorial and do they have any idea who he is?

In Canberra we visited the tomb of the Unknown Australian soldier at the War Memorial. The unknown Australian soldier’s body was dug up from the Adelaide Cemetery in France. The soldier was probably British, but he could have also been a Canadian, a New Zealander, or an Australian.The Unknown Australian Soldier represents all Australians who have been killed in war.

“We do not know this Australian’s name and we never will. We do not know his rank or battalion. We do not know where he was born, nor precisely how he died … We will never know who this Australian was … he was one of the 45,000 Australians who died on the Western Front … one of the 60,000 Australians who died on foreign soil. One of the 100,000 Australians who died in wars this century. He is all of them. And he is one of us.”

These are the words of the Eulogy said by Prime Minister Paul Keating at the entombing of the Unknown Soldier onthe 11th of November, 1993.

School stuff

 

 

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