The King's Pilgrimage

Rudyard Kipling's The King's Pilgrimage is a solemn tribute to the dead of the Great War, following the King's private journey through the cemeteries and battlefields of France and Belgium. Rather than royal display, he travels as a mourner, meeting grieving families, villagers, children, cemetery workers, and representatives from across the Empire in a shared act of remembrance. The book moves from the ruined Ypres Salient, where the horror of gas warfare and the endurance of soldiers are vividly recalled, to sacred burial grounds at Zeebrugge, Tyne Cot, Notre Dame de Lorette, Etaples, Terlincthun, Forceville, Louvencourt, Picquigny, and Crouy, where the dead of Britain, France, Belgium, South Africa, Newfoundland, India, Australia, and other Allied nations are honored alike. Interwoven with Kipling's verse, photographs, captions, and historical notes, the pilgrimage becomes a memorial to sacrifice, comradeship, and the moral cost of war. Wreaths, salutes, and quiet gestures of grief affirm the dignity of the unknown and the known alike, while official letters and the work of the Imperial War Graves Commission promise that these graves will be cared for and remembered for all time. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.