My Boy Jack

The first exhibition to tell the full story of Rudyard Kipling's only son John who was killed in the Battle of Loos in 1915. Rarely seen archive material on display will include the moving correspondence between Rudyard and John; Rudyard Kipling's wartime passport; along with John's commission and last letter. Items from the Imperial War Museum's archives will include a bugle used by the 1st Gordons at Loos and played on Armistice Day at the Museum during the 1920s and 30s, as well as a section of the bullet-damaged Lone Tree which stood in No Man's Land at Loos and a fragment of a sketch map showing where John died.

The exhibition is being launched to coincide with the screening of ITV1's drama My Boy Jack starring Daniel Radcliffe as John and David Haig as Rudyard Kipling.