Rudyard Kipling - WWI Memorial - Retford, UK
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 53° 19.363 W 000° 56.588
30U E 636997 N 5910142
This World War I memorial stands in the Market Square, in front of Retford Town Hall and is in the form of an Eleanor Cross. On one of the faces of the memorial is a quote from the author and poet Rudyard Kipling.
Waymark Code: WM13PF1
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 01/23/2021
Views: 2
"
Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)was born in India, the inspiration to much of his work. Primarily recognised for his poetry, he was also a journalist, short-story writer and novelist.
Kipling's works of fiction include The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901), and many short stories, including "The Man Who Would Be King" (1888). His poems include "Mandalay" (1890), "Gunga Din" (1890), "The Gods of the Copybook Headings" (1919), "The White Man's Burden" (1899), and "If—" (1910). He is seen as an innovator in the art of the short story. His children's books are classics; one critic noted "a versatile and luminous narrative gift."
Kipling in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was among the United Kingdom's most popular writers. Henry James said "Kipling strikes me personally as the most complete man of genius, as distinct from fine intelligence, that I have ever known." In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, as the first English-language writer to receive the prize, and at 41, its youngest recipient to date. He was also sounded out for the British Poet Laureateship and several times for a knighthood, but declined both. Following his death in 1936, his ashes were interred at Poets' Corner, part of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey."
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The quotation on the memorial
THEY
WILLINGLY
LEFT THE
UNACHIEVED
PURPOSE OF
THEIR LIVES
IN ORDER
THAT ALL
LIFE SHOULD
NOT BE
WRENCHED
FROM ITS
PURPOSE
R.K.
The source of the quotation
The quotation comes from a speech made by Rudyard Kipling at Edinburgh University where he was praising the achievements of people from the university in general, but also specifically about how they fought bravely in the war and willingly sacrificed their lives for others.
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