Читать книгу Over Here and Over There - Harry Bobonich - Страница 33

After the war broke out in 1914, author and poet Rudyard Kipling--an ardent supporter of the war--attempted to get his son John a commission in the military. After being rejected by both the Navy and Army due to poor eyesight, Kipling used his influence to get him admitted to the army. After he completed his military training, John was commissioned as a second lieutenant on June 7, 1915: he was only 17 years old.

During those early war years, Kipling wrote:

For all we have and are,

For all our children’s fate,

Stand up and take the war,

The Hun is at the gate!

John was then sent to France in August. Just shortly afterward in September, he was wounded and reported missing in action during the fighting at Loos: he had just celebrated his eighteenth birthday in the muddy trenches. Since his body was not identified, his family searched desperately for him in field hospitals and interviewed many of his comrades to try and find out what happened to him.

Kipling wrote a poem after his son (called Jack) had disappeared in the battle at Loos. The first stanza of the poem, titled, “My Boy Jack,” reads:

“Have you news of my boy Jack?”

Not this tide.

“When d’you think that he’ll come back?”

Not with this wind blowing and this tide.

“Has any one else had word of him?”

Not this tide.

For what is sunk, will hardly swim,

Not with this wind blowing, and this tide. . . .

Kipling—who finally accepted that his son had been killed at Loos—now became more critical of the war. In his poem “Common Form” Kipling wrote:

If any questions why we died.

Tell them, because our fathers lied.

In 1992, John’s grave had reportedly been identified and buried in Haisnes, in the north of France. Additional investigation suggested that the finding might have been in error. Finally in 2016, further research confirmed that the original identification of the grave was correct. (“John Kipling,” Wikipedia n.a.n.d.)