My Boy Jack is a 1915 poem by Rudyard Kipling. 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 years before Kipling and his family had Jack's death confirmed.
In 1919 a Graves Registration Unit had recorded a burial in St Mary’s Advanced Dressing Station Cemetery at Haisnes as being an "Unknown Lieutenant of the Irish Guards". In 1992, as there were only 3 unidentified Irish Guards officers buried as unknowns in World War I, by a process of elimination the site believed to hold Jack Kipling's body was identified in St. Mary's A.D.S. Cemetery, Haisnes, Pas de Calais and a gravestone erected to replace the previous "Known unto God" headstone.[1][2][3] Five years later, war historians Tonie and Valmai Holt declared that the stone stood over the grave of the wrong man and asked for the case to be reopened.[4] However, in 2010 the Commonwealth War Graves Commission confirmed that the grave is in fact that of Lieutenant John Kipling.[5]
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My Boy Jack is the name of a 1997 play written by English actor David Haig. It examines how grief affected Rudyard Kipling and his family following the death of his son, John (known as Jack), at the Battle of Loos in 1915. It includes a recitation of the poem, My Boy Jack.[6] Ben Silverstone first played Jack Kipling on stage, while Daniel Radcliffe took over the role for the ITV screen adaptation of the same name. Haig played Rudyard Kipling in both stage and screen shows.
"My Boy Jack", song for medium voice and piano by Betty Roe. [7]
Neofolk singer Andrew King recorded a song showcasing the lyrics to this poem.
Setting for voice and concertina by Peter Bellamy. [8]