"The King's Pilgrimage" is a poem and book about the journey made by King George V in May 1922 to visit the World War I cemeteries and memorials being constructed at the time in France and Belgium by the Imperial War Graves Commission.[1] This journey was part of the wider pilgrimage movement that saw tens of thousands of bereaved relatives from the United Kingdom and the Empire visit the battlefields of the Great War in the years that followed the Armistice.[2] The poem was written by the British author and poet Rudyard Kipling, while the text in the book is attributed to the Australian journalist and author Frank Fox.[3][4] Aspects of the pilgrimage were also described by Kipling within the short story "The Debt" (1930).[5]
- ^ Pinney, Thomas, ed. (1920–1930). The Letters of Rudyard Kipling. Vol. 5 (2004) ed.). University of Iowa Press. p. 120. ISBN 9780877458982. Note 1
- ^ "Pilgrimage: When the boys came home". Aftermath WW1. Retrieved 18 January 2010. This source includes the information that the book sold in "huge numbers", though it is not clear where this information comes from.
- ^ "Fox, Sir Frank Ignatius (1874–1960)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943.
- ^ "Sir Frank Ignatius Fox". National Register of Archives. UK. Retrieved 26 February 2010. The database entry for Fox] refers to "misc corresp and papers rel to The King's Pilgrimage" held in the archives of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Debt noteswas invoked but never defined (see the help page).