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Lot 276
WORLD WAR ONE – KIPLING
22 November 2011, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £1,062.50 inc. premium
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WORLD WAR ONE – KIPLING
'Private' autograph letter signed by Rudyard Kipling, to Lord Derby, Secretary of State for War, suggesting an alteration to the wording of letters sent to relatives of those killed in the Great War: "I quite see it would not be possible to have a form of words which required as M.S. interpolation: but I think you lose a point when you say 'The Country will be &c' instead of 'His' or 'Our Country'. 'The' is too impersonal for people new to their sense of loss whereas 'his' or 'our' brings every one into the family as it were which, at present, is useful, and later on may be even more so"; attached to a copy of the final printed letter as sent out by Derby, in which Kipling's alteration is adopted ('The King commands me to assure you of the true sympathy of His Majesty and The Queen in your sorrow./ He whose loss you mourn died in the noblest of causes. His Country will be ever grateful to him for the sacrifice he has made for Freedom and Justice'), Kipling's letter 2 pages, headed paper, file-holes, 8vo, Bateman's, 8 December 1917
Footnotes
'TOO IMPERSONAL FOR PEOPLE NEW TO THEIR SENSE OF LOSS': Kipling councils the Secretary of State for War on the wording of his letter to those bereaved in the Great War. Kipling is famous for devising the plain statement used on the graves of those who could not be identified (like his son John whose body was only identified decades later): 'A Soldier of the Great War, Known Unto God'. The circumstances in which the present recently-discovered letter was written is discussed in note to the Kipling Newletter: 'Sir Derek Oulton writes to draw attention to an article by Michael Jubb in Notes & Queries for September 1985, page 377, entitled "Rudyard Kipling and the Message of Sympathy to the Relatives of Soldiers Killed in the First World War". Given the topic (the drafting of tributes to the war dead, a matter in which Kipling by common consent played an influential part, notably for the Imperial War Graves Commission) this account is, in Sir Derek's words, "less laudatory than most"./ Its essence is that a War Office file (WO 32/4841) at the Public Records Office, Kew, shows how Lord Derby, Secretary of State for War, sought Kipling's help in late 1917 in the drafting of a new official message conveying sympathy to the relatives of those killed in the war; but that Kipling's suggestions were later rejected./ He had proposed in a letter to Derby on 23 November 1917 the following draft: "The King has heard/knows/has been informed that ..... your ..... has given his life for his country, and joins with the Nation in pride and gratitude for the sacrifice he has made in the cause of freedom/liberty and Justice/Right. His Majesty commands me to send you his own and the Queen's deep sympathy in your loss."/ Not much of this showed in the final official draft, as follows: "The King commands me to assure you of the true sympathy of His Majesty and the Queen in your sorrow. He whose loss you mourn died in the noblest of causes. The Country will be ever grateful to him for the sacrifice he has made for Freedom and Justice." It is not known what Kipling thought of the rejection of his draft, and a further letter from him to Derby is missing from the file, but he did get "The" changed into "His" before "Country"' (September 1986, pp. 45-6).