Dear Elaine,
    As the unofficial 'keeper' of the Kipling Mailbase, I try to welcome all newcomers, and tell them that the back history is often worth looking through - there's a fair amount of ephemeral stuff - information about llectures and exhibitions which are all over and done with, by the time you will read them, but there are other fascinating (Ihope you will think) bits of information about Kipling, his life and times.
    I regret that I have not read Kipling's Choice, so I cannot make any sensible comment on it, but I would endorse what John Walker has told you, particularly in respect of the old canard that Kipling, in effect, 'forced' his son to join the army in 1914.  As I showed in my earlier e-mail to the mailbase, John Kipling had indicated a desire to join the regular army some 15 months before the outbreak of war, and was preparing to sit the exam for Sandhurst in the summer of 1914 - he might have passed the exam, but it is doubtful if he would have been accepted medically for the peacetime army.
    As a general source for your MA on Kipling's life in Sussex, I believe you will find our transcrription of the extracts from Carrie Kipling's diaries of use - you will find them by the 'For Members' button at the LH side of our web-site's home page.  (We would have liked to have them on the open pages, but because Carrie's own words are still under copyright for another two years, the copyright holder has insisted that they are available only to members of the Society.)
    Going back to John Kipling, it is hard for many of us, four generations removed from 1914, to realise how enthusiastically the young men of about-to-be-over Edwardian England embraced the idea of going to war. We know now what they were letting themselves in for, and find it difficult to comprehend why they should have flocked to the recruiting offices - but they did - often egged on by well-meaning women who went round giving white feathers (indicating cowardice) to young men who hadn't joined up.  But mainly, it was peer pressure which encouraged them to join up - anyway, it was 'all going to be over by Christmas', and if they didn't join now, they's 'miss all the fun' (Ha!)
    In fact, in doing his best to assist John to get a commission in the Irish Guards, Kipling ensured that John didn't just go and enlist as a Private to become so much cannon-fodder in the new armies, and that he would be as well trained as he could be for life on the western front.
    As regards corrspondence between John and his family, you will find a few letters written to John by Kipling in Vol 4 of Professor Tom Pinney's The Letters of Rudyard Kipling - I don't know of any the other way about which remain and are in the public domain - but, as John Walker says, do check out back numbers of the KIpling journal - those are on-line and are available to anyone - not for members only.
    After John was reported, missing, the Kiplings tried all manner of routes to try to find out what had happened, and visited men of John's battalion who had been wounded in the same battle, in hospital or where they were convalescing.  I don't know about Sergeants Kinneally and Cochrane in particular, but I have a feeling that there was correspondence from a sergeant, but I cannot now recall the reference.
    As regards your comment about the KOSB, I don't know where that comes from, but it is less than accurate:  if you look at the regimental web-site (www.kosb.co.uk) you will see that the 6th, 7th and 8th battalions of the KOSB were at Loos - the site doesn't give the casualties for the 6th, but states that the 7th lost two-thirds, and the 8th one-third of their men - but that is casualties, not dead - casualties ranged from a bullet-graze, needing not more than a field-dressing, and which did not really interfere with a man's ability to continue fighting;, to a 'blighty', the loss of a limb, which rendered him ineffective, but at least ensured that he returned to his family; to a death.  I stand to be corrected, but as a broad principle, if you work on a ratio of 1 death to 2 wounded, you'll get a better picture of what casualties meant.  In the case of the two battalions of KOSB cited above, that would mean about 400-450 casualties - say 150 dead - for the 7th, and 200-250 for the 8th - 75 dead, for the 8th.  Those figures are bad enough, but serve to put things in perspective.
    Please don't hesitate to ask for any further pointers on where to look - we're a helpful bunch in the Society (just had a thought, you should read Kipling's Sussex, by Michael Smith - and look at a piece under the same title on our web-site, on the Reader's Guide button, and in the General Articles when you get there.)
    Yours,
    Alastair Wilson

On 08/03/2017 15:37, Elaine Dyke wrote: