Admittance ticket to the funeral service of the Unknown Warrior, Westminster Abbey, 11 November 1920

Ticket, World War One, Peace (1918-1921), 1920.

The selection of the people who would attend the Armistice Day ceremonies of 1920 at the Cenotaph and in Westminster Abbey provoked a heated public debate. This caused the government to change its plans and give priority to the families of the bereaved over members of the government and the military and resulted in the deliberate exclusion of 'fashionable society'. As a result, the congregation at Westminster Abbey for the funeral of the Unknown Warrior was comprised of nearly 1,000 widows and mothers of those who died in the war.

The huge crowds expected in London that day made ticketing for entrance into the Abbey essential, otherwise, as the Dean, Herbert Ryle, warned, 'there would be chaos'.

From the papers of Dame Florence Leach (Dame Simpson).