Letters to the Unknown Warrior

Letters from students to the Unknown Warrior. 

On the centenary of the burial of the Unknown Warrior in Westminster Abbey, we are delighted to publish some of the work produced by young people for our Letter to the Unknown Warrior Competition. 

Students were invited to write a letter to the Unknown Warrior. They could imagine that they were a young person in 1920 who had lost a family member or friend in the war or they could write as themselves, a young person in 2020, explaining what the Unknown Warrior means to them today.

We have chosen ten letters to feature here. They were chosen because they had used the resources supplied to produce exceptionally thoughtful and original responses. Many of them made us think about a story we knew well in a fresh way (and we have favoured this over the occasional anachronism).

We will be sending prizes to these students as well as a small thank you to all those who submitted letters and to their schools.

These prizes will be provided by The Western Front Association and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.  

The students we are featuring (in alphabetical order by school) are:

Eloise Rawsthorne-Durand - Alleyne’s Academy, Stone

Richard Moore - Airdrie Academy, Airdrie

Edie Street - Bishop Rawstorne Church of England Academy, Croston

Saffiyyah Kazi - Eden Girls’ School, Waltham Forest

Rebecca Cobb - Hutchesons’ Grammar School, Glasgow

Gemma Christie - The King’s School, Chester

Imogen Aldridge - The King’s School, Chester

Estella Lally - The King’s School, Chester

Lily Ella Barnard - The King’s School, Chester

Shadman Razin - Morpeth School, Tower Hamlets

Congratulations to all the students who entered and thank you to their teachers for supporting them.

We hope you enjoy their work. 

Eve Wilson

Education Trustee