Ian Jack (We remembered the battle of Jutland, but we are losing our awe of the sea, 4 June) forgot one great poem about the Battle of Jutland – My Boy Jack by Rudyard Kipling. This is understandable because the poem has been wrongly identified and adopted as an elegy to Kipling’s son John, who lost his life at Loos on the western front in September 1915. However, John Kipling was never called “Jack”. Rather the poem mourned the loss of John (known as Jack) Cornwell, who won, as Ian Jack notes, a posthumous VC at Jutland.
Kipling’s poem originally appeared with an article written in October 1916 called Destroyers at Jutland. It becomes a lament for all those who died at sea – particularly those at Jutland – and is made more universal by the connotation between “Jack” and “Jack Tar”, the common term for sailor. Kipling wrote widely about the sea – its physical dangers, its excitements and its contribution to Britain’s island history and sense of identity. Look at his poem The Harp Song of the Dane Women for a heart-rending cry about the cruelty of the sea, which robbed families of loved ones.
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