My Boy Jack
Imperial War Museum London, 6 November 2007 – 24 February 2008

Imperial War Museum London is mounting the first exhibition to tell the full story of Rudyard Kipling’s only son John who was killed in the Battle of Loos in 1915. The exhibition is being launched to coincide with the screening of ITV1’s drama, My Boy Jack produced by Ecosse Films, starring Daniel Radcliffe as John and David Haig as Rudyard Kipling.

Shortly after war was declared in 1914, John Kipling, who was medically unfit for military service due to his severe short-sightedness, secured a commission in the Irish Guards thanks to his father’s influence. John was posted to France on his eighteenth birthday and was reported wounded and missing, six weeks later in his first action, on 27 September 1915. John’s grief-stricken parents used all possible channels and every high-level contact to establish news about their son in the hope that he might still be alive, possibly as a prisoner of war. It was not until 1919 that they finally accepted that he had died.

Rarely seen archive material being displayed will include the moving correspondence between Rudyard and John; Rudyard Kipling’s wartime passport; John’s commission and last letter; and letters of condolence from Conan-Doyle and Theodore Roosevelt, both of whom also lost sons in the war. A section of the exhibition will display material from the ITV drama including John’s uniform worn by Daniel Radcliffe along with other costumes for Rudyard and Carrie Kipling (David Haig and Kim Cattrall), designs, scripts, props and other production material.

Items from the Imperial War Museum’s archives will include a bugle used by the 1st Gordons at Loos and played on Armistice Day at the Museum during the 1920s and 30s, as well as a section of the bullet-damaged Lone Tree which stood in No Man’s Land at Loos and a fragment of a sketch map showing where John died.

The Kiplings were among the millions of parents who lost sons in the war. From Britain alone over 700,000 men serving in the British Army were killed. Over half of these, like John, had no known grave. However, in 1992, over seventy years after John’s death, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission announced that the grave of an ‘unknown Irish Guards Lieutenant’ was in fact that of John. The exhibition will conclude with an examination of new evidence that strongly disputes this.

An updated edition of the biography of John Kipling, My Boy Jack? The Search for Kipling’s Only Son by Tonie and Valmai Holt (Major & Mrs Holt) in which the new evidence is presented, will be published by Pen and Sword to coincide with the exhibition launch.

Admission to My Boy Jack is free

For further information contact: Victoria Main, Press Officer, Imperial War Museum London, 020 7416 5497, vmain@iwm.org.uk

For further information on the ITV1 drama My Boy Jack contact: Natalie Cheary, ITV1 Press Office, 020 7737 8676, natalie.cheary@itv.com

Notes to Editors:

MY BOY JACK
A single film for ITV1 starring David Haig, Daniel Radcliffe and Kim Cattrall

Daniel Radcliffe, in his first TV drama role since finding fame in the Harry Potter series of films, plays John ‘Jack’ Kipling in MY BOY JACK, an epic and moving story of an extraordinary family from Ecosse Films.

The film’s writer David Haig plays celebrated author Rudyard Kipling with Kim Cattrall (Sex And The City) as his wife Caroline. MY BOY JACK is based on his own stage play version of the story.

Set during World War One, MY BOY JACK tells the true story of how Rudyard Kipling used his influence to get his 17-year-old son Jack a commission with the Irish Guards despite his son’s poor eyesight. Jack went missing in action during the Battle of Loos and his mother and father carried out an ardent search for him, spanning many years and many miles of soul-destroying discovery.

Supporting cast will include Carey Mulligan (Bleak House, Northanger Abbey) as Elsie Kipling and Julian Wadham (The Last Days of The Raj, Marple) as King George V.

For further information on the ITV1 drama My Boy Jack contact: Natalie Cheary, ITV1 Press Office, 020 7737 8676, natalie.cheary@itv.com

My Boy Jack is released on DVD on 19th November, priced £17.99.  The DVD features this gripping World War drama plus 'The Making Of My Boy Jack', including exclusive interviews with Daniel Radcliffe, Kim Cattrall and David Haig.

For further information contact: Jo Hadfield, 2 entertain, 020 7612 3145, jo.hadfield@2entertain.co.uk 

MY BOY JACK? THE SEARCH FOR KIPLING’S ONLY SON
TONIE AND VALMAI HOLT
My Boy Jack is the extraordinary story of Kipling's search for his son. John Kipling was reported missing in the Battle of Loos on the Western Front in 1915.

In 1992, 77 years later, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission took the exceptional step of naming a previously unknown soldier buried in St. Mary's ADS CWGC Cemetery in France as John Kipling. The authors, Tonie and Valmai Holt, intrigued by this unusual and newsworthy action felt drawn into taking the investigation further, to examine the evidence and to question the identification.

Now fully updated, My Boy Jack contains the results of the Holts latest research into the resting place of John Kipling. They have uncovered new evidence backing their belief that John’s grave has been wrongly identified by the CWGC and have traced the soldier they believe is buried in it.

For further information contact: Jonathan Wright, Pen and Sword Books Ltd, 01226 734 686, marketing@pen-and-sword.co.uk 

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM LONDON
This London branch of the Imperial War Museum houses exhibits ranging from tanks and aircraft to photographs and personal letters; they include film and sound recordings, and some of the 20th century's best-known paintings. Visitors can explore six floors of exhibitions and displays, including a permanent exhibition dedicated to the holocaust and a changing programme of special temporary exhibitions.  

Imperial War Museum London
Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ
10.00am - 6.00pm
Enquiries 020 7416 5320/5321
www.iwm.org.uk
Press Contact:  Laura McKechan 020 7416 5311 lmckechan@iwm.org.uk 
Victoria Main 020 7416 5497 vmain@iwm.org.uk 

IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM
The national museum of the experiences of people who have lived, fought and died in conflicts involving Britain and the Commonwealth since 1914.
 
The Imperial War Museum is the museum of everyone’s story: the history of modern war and people’s experience of war and wartime life in Britain and the Commonwealth. It is an educational and historical institution responsible for archives, collections and sites of outstanding national importance.
 
The Museum’s five branches include Imperial War Museum London which houses the award-winning Holocaust exhibition; the Second World War cruiser HMS Belfast; the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms, housed in Churchill’s secret headquarters below Whitehall; Imperial War Museum Duxford, a world-renowned aviation and heritage complex, and Imperial War Museum North, one of the most talked-about Museums in the UK.