Once again it’s that time of year when blood-red poppies contrast with the grey of a November day. The present generation may struggle to appreciate the sacrifice of Remembrance, even with the flag-draped coffins coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan, while the older generation discover once again that time doesn’t really heal the memory – or make up for the lost of two World Wars.

Just inside the West Door of Westminster Abbey, a black marble slab, surrounded by poppies, marks the grave of the Unknown Soldier.

The idea of such a monument was the inspiration of the Rev David Railton, who had served as a chaplain on the Western Front during the First World War. Following the signing of the Armistice, he shared his plan with the Dean of the Abbey, who approached the Prime Minister and the King. The plan was enthusiastically received, and six working parties were dispatched to the battlefields of northern France. Each party recovered the body of an unnamed soldier and returned to S Pol. Checks were made to ensure that the bodies were those of British soldiers. This done, Brigadier-General Wyatt, director of the War Graves Commission, was blindfolded and invited to touch one of the six coffins – selecting just one for the symbolic burial.

The next day, November 9th, the coffin began its journey to Britain. The travellers stopped for the night at the castle in old Boulogne. A plaque still marks the spot where the coffin rested.

The cortege arrived at Victoria Station at 8.33 the next evening, the coffin remaining on board overnight. The next morning, November 11th, 1920, the second anniversary of the Armistice, the body was laid to rest in the Abbey. To symbolise the fact that Britain, France and Belgium had each suffered such enormous losses during the four-year conflict, the British soldier was laid in a coffin of English oak, which had been filled with French soil, and then sealed with a slab of Belgium black marble.

The identity of that soldier remains unknown to this day. Many thousands of other casualties, on both sides of the conflict, have no known grave. Almost as many have graves, but without names. These bear the inscription, ‘Known to God’.

Known to God. If there is any comfort at this time of Remembrance then it is that God is greater than any human conflict, the loss of a husband, wife, brother, sister, parent, child – and even death itself.

These are not empty words. God raised his Son to life again following the most brutal of all conflicts and the most cruel of deaths, having died for the sins of the world. To the fearful, grieving and distressed, the Bible promises – ‘God, who gives hope, will fill you with much joy and peace while you trust in him.’

Romans 15 verse 13