Uploaded November 2014 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Here's a virtual movie of the great Rudyard Kipling reading "My Boy Jack" Which he wrote after recieving the heartbreaking news that his only son had been killed in action in the Battle of Loos in September 1915.
My Boy Jack is a 1915 poem by Rudyard Kipling. Although Kipling wrote it after his beloved son John (called Jack) an 18 year old Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, Irish Guards went missing in September 1915 during the Battle of Loos, during World War I, it was published as a prelude to a story in his book Sea Warfare written about the Battle of Jutland in 1916.[1] The imagery and theme is maritime in nature and as such it is about a generic nautical Jack (or Jack Tar), though emotionally affected by the death of Kipling's son.
John "Jack" Kipling (17 August 1897 - 27 September 1915) was the only son of the British author Rudyard Kipling. He was killed at the Battle of Loos while serving with the British Army during the First World War, a few weeks after his eighteenth birthday.
The Battle of Loos was the largest British offensive mounted in 1915 on the Western Front during World War I. The first British use of poison gas occurred and the battle was the first mass engagement of New Army units. The British offensive was part of the attempt by the French to break through the German defences in Artois and Champagne and restore a war of movement. Despite improved methods, more ammunition and better equipment the Franco-British attacks were contained by the German armies, except for local losses of ground. Casualties in the Herbstschlacht (Autumn Battle) were high on both sides.
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2014
Here's a virtual movie of the great Rudyard Kipling reading "My Boy Jack" Which he wrote after recieving the heartbreaking news that his only son had been killed in action in the Battle of Loos in September 1915.
My Boy Jack is a 1915 poem by Rudyard Kipling. Although Kipling wrote it after his beloved son John (called Jack) an 18 year old Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, Irish Guards went missing in September 1915 during the Battle of Loos, during World War I, it was published as a prelude to a story in his book Sea Warfare written about the Battle of Jutland in 1916.[1] The imagery and theme is maritime in nature and as such it is about a generic nautical Jack (or Jack Tar), though emotionally affected by the death of Kipling's son.
John "Jack" Kipling (17 August 1897 - 27 September 1915) was the only son of the British author Rudyard Kipling. He was killed at the Battle of Loos while serving with the British Army during the First World War, a few weeks after his eighteenth birthday.
The Battle of Loos was the largest British offensive mounted in 1915 on the Western Front during World War I. The first British use of poison gas occurred and the battle was the first mass engagement of New Army units. The British offensive was part of the attempt by the French to break through the German defences in Artois and Champagne and restore a war of movement. Despite improved methods, more ammunition and better equipment the Franco-British attacks were contained by the German armies, except for local losses of ground. Casualties in the Herbstschlacht (Autumn Battle) were high on both sides.
Kind Regards
Jim Clark
All rights are reserved on this video recording copyright Jim Clark 2014
