On the 6th November 2004, the remains of an unidentified New Zealand soldier were removed from Caterpillar Valley cemetery and entrusted to New Zealand at a ceremony held at the Longueval Memorial. The remains had been exhumed by staff of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission from Plot 14, Row A, Grave 27 In a subsequent ceremony they were laid to rest within the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, at the National War Memorial, Wellington, New Zealand. Grave: XIV A 27 On 10 November 2004, the New Zealand Defence Force brought the Unknown Warrior home. During a welcoming ceremony at Parliament the Unknown Warrior was honoured with the campaign medals of the two World Wars, the Operational Service Medal, and the Royal New Zealand Returned & Services Association's highest award, the Badge in Gold. An estimated 10,000 people queued to pay their respects to the Unknown Warrior during the lying-in-state vigil, which continued through the night at Parliament. On 11 November, after a Memorial Service at the Cathedral of St Paul, the Unknown Warrior was accorded a full military funeral procession through Wellington to the final interment ceremony at the National War Memorial. It is estimated that 100,000 people lined the route as the procession passed to a specially composed slow-time march entitled Fernleaf Headstones. The interment ceremony included a eulogy by the Governor-General, a reading by Vincent O'Sullivan of his poem,'Homecoming - TeHokinga Mai', and a haunting choral lament of Timothy Hurd's 'Memento for an Unknown Warrior' performed by The Tudor Consort. The Unknown Warrior was then accorded his final farewells and laid to rest in his new tomb. http://www.nationalwarmemorial.govt.nz/tomb.html
