The Exhibition
My Boy Jack is the moving story of a close relationship between father and son, cut tragically short in the trenches of the First World War. John Kipling, beloved only son of Rudyard Kipling was granted a Commission in the Irish Guards in 1914. Sent to France in August 1915, John saw action in the Battle of Loos where, as Rudyard later wrote, the Irish Guards ‘lost seven officers in forty minutes’. It was here that John was reported wounded and missing on 27 September 1915.
Discover the story of John’s short life, and the subsequent desperate search by his parents to find his final resting place, through the Kipling family’s letters, photographs and original manuscripts. On display is the moving correspondence between Rudyard and John; 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. Exhibits from the Imperial War Museum’s collections include a bugle used by the 1st Gordons at the Battle of Loos as well as a section of the bullet-damaged Lone Tree which stood in No Man’s Land and a fragment of a sketch map showing where John died.
The uniform worn by Daniel Radcliffe in the ITV drama will be exhibited along with other costumes for Rudyard and Carrie Kipling (David Haig and Kim Cattrall), designs, scripts, props and other production material.
