WORLD WAR ONE
"And there were, too, many, almost children, of whom no record remains. They came out from Warley with the constantly renewed drafts, lived the span of a Second Lieutenant's life and were spent."
The Irish Guards in the Great War, 1st and 2nd Battalions, by Rudyard Kipling
2 volumes; published in 1923
JOHN KIPLING MEMORIAL
Burwash Parish Church
Often seen as an unofficial spokesman for the British Empire and as ‘the soldiers’ poet’ (Lord Derby), Rudyard Kipling fought the Great War with his pen, and with his voice as a public speaker.
When the first World War broke out in August 1914, Rudyard Kipling felt horribly vindicated. The poet of Empire believed Britain’s army was pitifully small for the continental war he had warned was coming.
The privileged poets of the Great War are those who fought in it—Rosenberg, Owen, Sassoon. This is natural and human, but it is not fair. Kipling is one of the finest poets of the War, but he writes as a parent, a civilian, a survivor—all three of them compromised positions.
John Kipling, son of Rudyard Kipling, was killed at the Battle of Loos in 1915.
BURWASH WAR MEMORIAL
PERMISSIONS
Tristan Forward / Memorial to John Kipling at Burwash Church
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Burwash War Memorial
Poliphilo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Burwash%2C_closeup_of_war_memorial.JPG