BRAND / WESTMINSTER CITY PROJECT / 100 YEAR JOURNEY
At the start of World War One, a decision was made not to repatriate any bodies. Out of the one million service people who fell, it meant some 165,000 were left in unmarked graves, or simply never found.
In their honour, one nameless service person was brought home to be buried among the Kings and Queens in Westminster Abbey: The Unknown Warrior.
To mark the centenary, Westminster City Council wanted to retell the story to a whole new generation. We did it using the power of music.
THE IDEA
Commission the Military Wives Choirs to reimagine a hymn sung at the Unknown Warrior’s funeral, which made history to become the first ever piece of music to be sold as an electrical recording.
When it came to recording the track, we teamed up with renowned music producer, Sean Hargreaves.
The real stars though were the 70 women of Military Wives Choirs who travelled from across the country (during that weird bit of lockdown not lockdown) to record their vocals in individual booths. A process that felt oddly fitting for the story we were telling.
Released in the lead up to Remembrance Day, the track hit top spot in the iTunes Classical chart, was played on Radio 2 following the minute’s silence, and achieved nationwide coverage across major news channels.
The documentary
While we released the song as the campaign hook, we created a long form documentary to tell the story in full. Narrated by women in the Military Wives Choirs, the narrative seamlessly weaves together their experiences of losing loved ones in war, the symbolism behind the journey of the Unknown Warrior, and the power of music to unite people during the toughest of times.
Released in-sync with the song, it received over 50k views online in the weeks following Remembrance Sunday and was seen by millions on BT Sport with multiple airings over FA Cup weekend.
Our retelling of the story made national headlines
