Rudyard Kipling's only son John, who was born in 1897, was lost at Loos just six weeks after his birthday. He was eighteen years old.
At the outbreak of war, John tried to join the Royal Navy but was rejected because he was short-sighted. However his fiercely patriotic father, Rudyard Kipling the famous poet, had friends in high places and pulled some strings to get John a commission in the Irish Guards. After training John was sent to the Western Front which his father was visiting as a war correspondent at the time. John was reported missing in action at the Battle of Loos in September 1915.
Photo: John Kipling
