The burial site, surrounded by black metal posts linked together by chains, consists of a slab of granite from Vire on which is inscribed the epitaph: Ici repose un soldat français mort pour la Patrie, 1914–1918 ("Here rests a French soldier who died for the Fatherland, 1914–1918").

After World War II, a bronze shield embellished with a sword engulfed in flames, offered by the Allies to the glory of the French armies and in memory of the liberation of Paris, was installed at the foot of the tomb.

[2] In a speech at the Rennes Eastern Cemetery on 26 November 1916, François Simon,[3] president of the local section of the Souvenir français (an association founded in 1887 to keep alive the memory of the dead of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870), first evoked the idea of opening the doors of the Panthéon to one of the ignored fighters who died bravely:[4] Pourquoi la France n'ouvrirait-elle pas les portes du Panthéon à l'un de nos combattants ignorés, mort bravement pour la patrie, avec, pour inscription sur la pierre, deux mots : « un soldat » ; deux dates : « 1914–1917 » ?

[Note 1] This burial of a private soldier under this dome, where so much glory and genius rest, would be like a symbol; and more, it would be a tribute to the entire French army.The idea did not really materialize until after the end of the conflict, but it first took the form of a guestbook remembering all the dead from the war: this book would be placed within the Pantheon.

[11] The bodies of eight soldiers who had served under French uniform but could not be identified were exhumed in the eight regions where the deadliest fighting had taken place: in Flanders, Artois, the Somme, Île-de-France, on the Chemin des Dames, the Champagne, at Verdun, and Lorraine.

[12] On 10 November, André Maginot, Minister of Pensions, approached one of the young soldiers carrying out his duties, Auguste Thin, who had been recruited as a volunteer in the class of 1919.

[15] Safeguarded all night at Place Denfert-Rochereau, the coffin made a solemn entrance under the Arc de Triomphe on Armistice Day, 11 November 1920.

It was placed on the gun carriage of a cannon 155, but was not buried until 28 January 1921, in the presence of civil and military authorities, including the marshals who distinguished themselves during the First World War (Ferdinand Foch, Joseph Joffre and Philippe Pétain).

[16] The other seven bodies not chosen at the ceremony of 10 November 1920 now rest in the Faubourg-Pavé National Cemetery, near Verdun, in the Carré des sept inconnus ("Square of the Seven Unknowns").

[18] It was finally Augustin Beaud who initiated his installation in reference to the small lamp that illuminated the cemetery of Panossas, where he lived in his childhood, because he found the site austere with regard to the symbol that it represented.

Initially designed to be rekindled annually on 11 November, journalists Gabriel Boissy and Jacques Péricard proposed in October 1923 that it should be relit every day at 6:30 p.m. by veterans, an idea which was supported by public opinion.

[20] The plaque from which the flame arises was designed by architect Henri Favier – the muzzle of a cannon pointed towards the sky, embedded in the centre of a kind of rosette representing an inverted shield whose chiselled surface consists of swords forming a star – which was made by the artist and iron worker Edgar Brandt.