David Railton Reverend David Railton MC Master of Arts , ( 13 November 188413 June 1955 ) was a Church of England clergyman , a Military chaplain and the originator of the idea of the tomb of The Unknown Warrior . Early life . Railton was the son of George Scott Railton , the first Commissioner of The Salvation Army and Second in Command after its Founder General William Booth , and his wife , Marianne Deborah Lydia Ellen Parkyn . Although he saw little of him , David Railton shared his father ' s faith and concern for the poorest in society . He was educated at Keble College , Oxford , matriculating in 1904 and obtaining his BA degree in 1908 ; and was further educated at Bishop ' s Hostel , in Liverpool . Having joined the Church of England he was ordained in Liverpool in 1908 and took up the curacy of Edge Hill in Liverpool . World War I . In 1910 he moved to Ashford , Kent , and in the following year became temporary chaplain to the Forces . He was curate of Folkestone in 1914 – 20 , but had leave of absence to serve in France . He was awarded the Military Cross in 1916 for saving an officer and two men under heavy fire . Railton first had the idea of arranging for the body of an unknown serviceman to be transported back to England , and buried with full honours , in 1916 , while he was serving on the Western Front during World War I . Later in the War he wrote to Lord Douglas Haig expressing this idea . He received no response , but felt reluctant to let it go . The Unknown Warrior . After the War Railton became the vicar of St . John the Baptist Church at Margate , but he still hoped to impress the authorities with his idea . In August , 1920 he wrote to Bishop Ryle , the Dean of Westminster , about the possibility of giving an unidentified soldier a national burial service in Westminster Abbey . Ryle took up the idea and his and Lloyd George ' s enthusiasm won over the initially hesitant King George V . In October 1920 Railton heard that his idea had been accepted by the Government . A committee headed by Lord Curzon , the then Foreign Secretary , was arranging for an unknown “ warrior ” to be disinterred in France and brought to Westminster Abbey . On 7 November 1920 six , or according to other accounts four , working parties visited the battlefields of Ypres , the Marne , Cambrai , Arras , the Somme , and the Aisne , where units of the Royal Naval division as well as the Army had died : each party exhumed an unidentified body which was examined to ensure that it was British before being placed in a plain coffin . At midnight one of these coffins was chosen by Brigadier General L . J . Wyatt , General Officer Commanding troops in France and Flanders , and thus became the official ' Unknown Warrior ' , placed in a new coffin bearing the inscription ‘ A British Warrior who fell in the Great War 1914 – 1918 for King and Country ’ . In 1916 Railton was an experienced and mature man in his thirties and was appalled at the sufferings and loss caused by the War . He later tried to explain why he had felt it was so important to commemorate the individual in this way . He recalled an incident near Armentieres where he came across a grave with a rough wooden cross inscribed " An unknown British soldier , of the Black Watch " : " How that grave caused me to think ! . . . But , who was he , and who were they [ his folk ] ? . . . Was he just a laddie . . . . There was no answer to those questions , nor has there ever been yet . So I thought and thought and wrestled in thought . What can I do to ease the pain of father , mother , brother , sister , sweetheart , wife and friend ? Quietly and gradually there came out of the mist of thought this answer clear and strong , “ Let this body - this symbol of him - be carried reverently over the sea to his native land ” . And I was happy for about five or ten minutes . " Later years . After the war Railton returned briefly to Folkestone before being successively vicar of St John the Baptist , Margate ( 1920 – 25 ) , curate of Christ Church , Westminster , vicar of St James ' s , Bolton , Yorkshire , vicar of Shalford , near Guildford ( 1931 – 5 ) , rector of St Nicholas ' s , Liverpool , and archbishop ' s visitor to the RAF ( 1943 – 5 ) before his retirement in 1945 . In addition he worked with the Revd Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy ( better - known as the First World War padre poet ' Woodbine Willie ' ) for the Church of England ' s Industrial Christian Fellowship , among workers at their places of work . ' Padre ' Railton made his home in retirement at Ard Rhu , Onich , Inverness - shire , and was returning there on 13 June 1955 from Battle , Sussex , where he had been helping the Rural Dean , when he accidentally fell from a moving train at Fort William railway station and died from his injuries . He was survived by his widow , one son , and four daughters ; Dame Ruth Railton , the founder of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain , was one of his daughters .