Known unto God

Known unto God is a phrase used on the gravestones of unknown soldiers in Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) cemeteries.

[5] Kipling had joined the Imperial War Graves Commission (IWGC)[6] – the predecessor to the CWGC – in 1917 as its first literary adviser.

[8][2] John was missing presumed killed in action (his grave was only identified in 1992) and this weighed heavily upon Rudyard Kipling.

[5][2] In discussing memorials to those missing with no known grave he said "[t]his matter is naturally of the deepest concern to the relatives of those whose bodies have never been recovered or identified, or whose graves, once made, have been destroyed by later battles" and when the ongoing funding of the IWGC was discussed in parliament he was quick to defend it stating "our boy was missing at Loos.

[7] Kipling is described as one of the three key figures in the development of the IWGC cemeteries, along with architect Edwin Lutyens and garden designer Gertrude Jekyll.

[17] He continued to be involved in the IWGC post-war, writing a description of the work of the commission in the 1919 book The Graves of the Fallen and also contributing a preface to a Thomas Cook sales brochure describing the decorum that tourists should exhibit whilst visiting the cemeteries.

"[23][24][25][a] In 1999, the "Known unto God" phrase was added to the tomb, despite founding figure Charles Bean's intention that there were to be no religious aspects to the memorial and the AWM always having been a secular institution.