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The word cenotaph is a combination of two Greek words - kenos meaning "empty" and taphos meaning "tomb". This suggests two important things. First, it is not a place where bodies are buried. Most of those who fought and died in the Great War were buried close to where they fell. Bodies were not repatriated. Sir Edwin Lutyens's Cenotaph in Whitehall was one of a whole number of memorials constructed after the First World War that were a focus of grief for those who had no grave at which to mourn their loved ones.
But the Cenotaph has an unavoidably Christian connotation, too: the empty tomb is clearly a reference to the resurrection of Christ. And the resurrection is not just about the fate of the individual soul but also about the ultimate triumph of peace in a world of violence and hatred.
The Cenotaph was first unveiled at the aptly named Peace Day Parade of July 1919. That's why it serves a very different function from the wholly secular Arc de Triomphe in Paris. If the Cenotaph points at triumph, it is to the ultimate triumph of peace, and not just the narrower victory of our side in war. Because peace is not just an end to fighting, it is also about former enemies becoming friends....