Tonight:
5°c
He's not alright Jack
Evening Standard 6 Nov 2007My Boy Jack
Imperial War Museum, SE1
Until 24 February
020 7416 5320
www.iwm.org.uk
In 1914 at the outbreak of World War One, Rudyard Kipling's only son John, above, was rejected from the Army because of his poor eyesight.
So Kipling pulled some strings and John received a commission from the Irish Guards shortly afterwards. He arrived in France in August 1915, but went missing within a month at the Battle of Loos.
On display in this exhibition is the moving correspondence between father and son, and letters of condolence to Kipling from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Theodore Roosevelt, both of whom also lost sons during the war.
Also on show is the uniform worn by Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe in the ITV dramatisation of the story, to be broadcast this Sunday.
