@DalrympleWill @EmpirePodUK A poignant segue into fatherhood and Empire, perhaps?

Nick Routledge@nick_routledge

2 December 2025 at 17:38Reply to @DalrympleWill

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Kipling, one of the First World War's earliest and most prominent public supporters, wrote 'The Gardener' while searching war cemeteries for the grave of his son, last seen on the battlefield at Loos, blinded by an injury, staggering, alone.

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· Kipling, one of the First World War's earliest and most prominent public supporters, wrote 'The Gardener' while searching war cemeteries for the grave of his son, last seen on the battlefield at Loos, blinded by an injury, staggering, alone.

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Nick Routledge@nick_routledge · 30 Dec 2021

@theabhayk @DalrympleWill @jorgeheinel @PritishNandy @mkoirala @holdengraber After his son's death, in a poem titled "Epitaphs of the War", Kipling wrote "If any question why we died / Tell them, because our fathers lied."

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