[4] After reports of the Rape of Belgium and the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915, Rudyard Kipling came to see the war as a crusade for civilisation against barbarism,[5] and was even more keen that his son should see active service.

There remains no definite evidence relating to the cause of his death, but credible reporting indicates he was last seen attacking a German position, possibly with a head injury.

[citation needed] The death of John inspired Rudyard Kipling to become involved with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and write a wartime history of the Irish Guards.

[citation needed] He also wrote as an epitaph “If any question why we died, / Tell them, because our fathers lied.”[10] However, contrary to popular belief,[citation needed] the poem My Boy Jack does not allude to the wartime loss of his son, rather it was probably written about the death of Jack Cornwell, the youngest sailor killed at the Battle of Jutland.

[13] In 2002, research by military historians Tonie and Valmai Holt suggested that this grave was not that of Kipling but of another officer, Arthur Jacob of the London Irish Rifles.

[14][15] In January 2016, however, further research by Graham Parker and Joanna Legg demonstrated that the grave attribution to John Kipling is correct.