The idea of honoring an unidentified fighter predates the First World War. After the defense of Jinju during the 1592 Japanese invasion of Korea, locals built a shrine to all who died on the walls, soldiers and civilians alike, and rites were held every spring and autumn from 1593 until a Japanese edict ended them in 1908. In 1849, after the First Schleswig War, Fredericia in Denmark raised what is considered Europe's first memorial to an unknown soldier, reflecting the shift to conscripted citizen armies.
The modern tradition began when army chaplain Reverend David Railton saw a battlefield grave marked in pencil, An Unknown British Soldier, and proposed a national burial backed by the Dean of Westminster, David Lloyd George and King George V. Britain and France held ceremonies on November 11, 1920, and the idea spread worldwide, from Arlington to Athens to Damascus. Its power depends on anonymity, and mitochondrial DNA testing has already identified the Vietnam War unknown at Arlington, leaving that crypt empty.
A French officer of Le Souvenir Français proposed burying an unknown soldier in the Panthéon as early as November 1916, and the burial took place under the Arc de Triomphe in early 1921.
Chile and Ukraine created tombs for an unknown sailor.
Greece's tomb in Athens, guarded by the Evzones, carries lines from Pericles' funeral oration as recorded by Thucydides.
Portugal's tomb at Batalha Monastery holds two unknowns, one from Flanders and one from the African theater.
In 2004 New Zealand brought one unknown soldier from northern France to Wellington to represent more than 18,000 of its First World War dead.
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