Dud Corner Cemetery and Loos Memorial

In 1914 Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907, was a fervent advocate for British intervention in the European war. So much so that when his son John volunteered for service and was initially turned away for health reasons, Rudyard used his great influence to secure him a place in the Irish Guards.

John Kipling's baptism of fire was in the Battle of Artois, opened by the Allies in September 1915. It was during the battle, on Gohelle Plain, that British forces used chlorine gas for the first time in reply to the German Army's use of chemical weapons at Ypres. The gas attack was initially a success but a change in the direction of the wind blew the gas towards the British lines and contributed greatly to the failure of the badly-prepared offensive.

'If any question why we died, tell them, because our fathers lied'

In a single day of fighting the British Army recorded 8,500 casualties. In total 50,000 men were killed, wounded or lost in action. The names of 20,000 of these men can be seen today on the Loos Memorial which encircles Dud Corner Cemetery in Loos-en-Gohelle. One notable entry among these names is that of John Kipling who was killed in action on 27 September; he was 18 years old and his body was never identified. Rudyard Kipling never got over the loss of his son. He wrote shortly afterwards the poignant poem Have you news of my boy Jack? which reflects not only his distress but also the incertitude surrounding his only son's final resting place. An active member of the Imperial War Graves Commission, it was Kipling who suggested the beautiful phrase 'Known unto God' to be engraved on the tombs of Britain's unknown soldiers. Later he was to write in Epitaphs of the War the damning lines, 'If any question why we died, tell them, because our fathers lied.'

The body of John 'Jack' Kipling was identified in 1992, three kilometres from Loos in the Saint-Mary ADS Cemetery near Haisnes-lez-la-Bassée.