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Dear All, Following on from Alastair's connection to Destroyers at Jutland, I must release the well-known bee in my bonnet. The news of Jack Cornwell's death was fresh when Kipling wrote his poem (He died in June 1916, and first publication of the verse was in The Times of October 19th 1916) Some of the newspapers had referred to him as a Ship's Boy (quite incorrectly, I expect), but he had enlisted as such, in October 1915, soon after John's death. So I had always read the first line as: "Have you news of MY boy Jack?" The British press had taken the case of one casualty and set out on the VC campaign. They have done it before and will do it again. Rudyard spoke for all those parents whose lost children were not news. I still cannot see why this simple, and convincing interpretation is unacceptable. Regards, John John Walker Honorary Librarian The Kipling Society