My Boy Jack?: The Search for Kipling's Only Son

by Tonie Holt, Valmai Holt

On 27 September, 1915, John, the beloved son of the world famous author Rudyard Kipling, was reported 'missing' in the Battle of Loos. Having pulled every string to get his myopic son into the Irish Guards Kipling was devastated at the loss of his only 'man-child' and determined to find his final resting place. Despite his influential position and a lifelong search, he never succeeded in his quest.

In 1992, seventy-seven years later, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission named a previously unknown soldier buried in St Mary's ADS CWGC Cemetery in France as John Kipling. Intrigued by this unusual development, Tonie and Valmai Holt, well known for their battlefield tours and guide books, felt compelled to investigate further. In the process, they became fascinated by the brief life of this young man, previously dismissed as intellectually inadequate and undistinguished. Instead, as this book reveals, they discovered a likeable, humorous and brave young officer, remarkably unspoilt by his father's fame. They also reveal that John's death had a devastating effect on his father and greatly influenced his subsequent work.

Major and Mrs Holt's intensive researches led them to the conclusion (reinforced by the opinions of four qualified professionals which are reproduced at the end of this book) that the Commission's 1992 decision was unsound. Their researches are ongoing and their latest discoveries are described in this new edition, published to coincide with an ITV1 film and an IWM Exhibition on 'My Boy Jack.'

Genres: History, Biography, World War I, Nonfiction, War

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[JD · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a book I could fully get into. Even though it deals with the heartbreak of the loss of a young son during World War 1, not just his death, but the inability to locate his body, it was a very impersonal book to read. The countless missing of the Great War is one of the greatest tragedies to come out of the conflict, and this book sadly missed what I was expecting of it.

[Graceann · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Kipling, the son of Rudyard Kipling, was declared missing after the very first battle in which he took part, in September 1915. He was just 18 years and a few weeks old. This, sadly, is not an unusual story for the Great War, where so many young men simply disappeared without a trace. What makes this story notable is that John's father used his connections and his literary skills to try to determine just what happened to John (who was not called “Jack” other than in one poem) on that last day and, once the reality of his death was faced, what happened to his body. From then to now, despite all the resources at hand and the willingness to assist that the Kiplings received, answers to those two questions remain frustratingly elusive.

In this book, first published many years ago and reprinted twice (most recently to coincide with an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum and the television movie of the same name), the author delves into Rudyard Kipling's upbringing, and his deep love for his wife and children. His involvement with their childhoods and his expressions of affection were certainly unusual for a Victorian/Edwardian household, and some dads might still be more distant than he was (I was a child in the 1970s and 80s, and my father, while an excellent provider, had no idea what was going on with me, and didn't view that part of my upbringing as his part of the dynamic). Kipling's childhood and interaction with his children has an important bearing on how he reacted to his son's absences for school and deployment, and the aura of grief he carried with him for the remainder of his life. It also helps to explain the doggedness with which he searched for answers, and the devotion he held for the work he continued up until his passing in creating memorials at various battlefields (concentrating on the site where it is believed that John fell).

In updates appended to the book, there are investigations as to whether an identification has been properly made regarding John's final resting place. These are exhaustive, but ultimately fascinating, bits of detective work.

Some of the asides/tangents slow things down in a way that made me say "get on with it already," and I do believe that familiarity with Kipling's writing would make this a more satisfying read, given how his personal experiences influenced his work. It's a shame to say about a book that's only about 250 pages, but there were spots that were dragged out and over-long.

Notes on e-reader editions: There are several issues with reading this on a dedicated Kindle ereader that are problematic. Firstly, the scanning was not followed up with human eye read-through, which is why I ended up using the process of elimination in order to identify what some words were meant to be. Secondly, trying to view the illustrative maps is frustrating at best and futile for most. My eyes aren't great to begin with, but I think I'd need a microscope to be able to see any details on the maps reprinted for Kindle Paperwhite. Finally, long after the page popped up saying “Book Finished” and after the bibliography, there's a whole, important updated section that tells us about further investigation into the location of John Kipling's burial site. If I hadn't been as insistent as I was that “there must be more to this,” I probably would have decided that that was it and closed the book, thus missing some important information. If you cannot get My Boy Jack in print, I highly recommend that you read it on a much-larger screen than the Paperwhite.

[Robert Colvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like Kipling, this book will give you a deeper insight into his writing, particularly his poetry about war. I very much enjoyed the part of this book that tied his work in honoring the dead from WWI, his personal quest to locate his dear son John, and his literature. One word of warning: The Kindle version of this book is an absolute embarrassment. The number of glaring typos, odd spacing and just ridiculous errors is so high that it breaks up your reading of this otherwise interesting book about one of the world's greatest writers.

[Babs M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read about Rudyard Kipling. Inconclusive on whether or not his son's body John was ever actually located. Nevertheless Rudyard, Carrie and Elsie are all gone so it doesn't mean as much now.

[Elliott · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an OK book, with some excellent analysis at the end to question whether or not John Kipling's body has truly been properly marked. But, until one gets to that rather excellent detective work there is little else praiseworthy here. My first complaint is the formatting at least for my edition was absolutely terrible. Words would be broken apart for no good reason, punctuation was not always used properly, very often the word "I" would be switched out for the number "1," capitalization was spotty, and there were some very confusing sentences in need of a serious trip to an editor. My second complaint is that the author commits the cardinal sin of any student of literature: 'thou shalt not read the author into their works.' In Kipling's case there is very little material to work with, much of it having been destroyed and so it seems necessary to read through the lines of his works looking for clues into his subconscious. That is a dangerous proposition, since as the ridiculous Oxfordian delusion of the Shakespeare "debate" shows: one can find exactly what one is looking for provided you look hard enough, squint, and repeat. I would have rather had it that the author admit straight out that there is no way to fully know Kipling's feelings of loss over his son, rather than try to pry ambiguous quotations from works and present them as evidence.

[Brenda Clough · Rating 3 out of 5]

This nonfiction work is better than the rather thin novel covering the same material that was published in 2012. The story itself is a heartbreaker. The death of young John Kipling in the trenches led his parents to search for his body for years; it only turned up quite recently, identified by dogtags in an unmarked grave. This book is possibly not the best way to get the story, however. The very best way might be to get hold of the DVD of the BBC movie of the same name; it is where the cover image comes from. Starring Daniel Radcliffe (a.k.a. Harry Potter) and David Haig, it dramatizes everything wonderfully.

[Errol Cavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apart from the misleading title, as John Kipling was never called Jack and the famous poem of that title was written about Jack Cornwell VC who died at the Battle of Jutland, this is a competently written account - and the only one - of the life and legacy of Rudyard Kipling's young son, sadly young when he was killed in his first engagement at the Battle of Loos, his relationship with his father, and his father's vain attempts to find his boy, or even his grave, and his more successful attempts to memoralise him in prose (The Irish Guards and Gethsemane for instance) and in stone (the war cemeteries).

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to finish this book, but it was worth every minute I spent on it. After seeing My Boy Jack (with Daniel Radcliffe as John Kipling), I was keenly interested in learning more about him and his famous father. Holt's book was fascinating.

What I particularly loved was the question of whether or not Rudyard Kipling may have felt guilt and/or responsibility for the death of his son at the Battle of Loos. The analysis of Kipling's writings, actions, behaviors, and the culture in which he lived was very interesting.

A great book.

[Elaine · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting biography of Kipling mixed in with some equally interesting insight into the realities of dealing with the thousands of casualties of WWI. A perspective you don't read too often. Useful from an academic point of view but, a bit too clinical to get into the heart of the heartbreak of the situation for the family. It makes me want to read more about the War Graves commission.

[Lisa Dornell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a had time getting into "Major and Mrs. Enbright's Guide to the Somme." It was too much like a Monty Python sketch. But it was a well researched and, ultimately, sad book about Kipling's search for his lost son. Not strictly for war buffs but a heartfelt guide to any parent who has lost a child to war.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful book. It was a fairly neutral biography of Rudyard Kipling as well as a description of the circumstances of his son's enlistment and death and the efforts made by the Kiplings to try to ascertain what had happened to him. Finally, there was an analysis of the evidence for the identification of John Kipling's grave.