Batemans
Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling's study
Kipling was born in Bombay on December 30 1865 to artist John Lockwood Kipling and his wife Alice. Young Kipling's earliest years were blissfully happy in an Imperial India full of exotic sights and sounds but at just five years old he was sent to stay with a foster family in Southsea, England where he was extremely unhappy.
At sixteen years old Kipling returned to India where he worked on the Civil and Military Gazette and, later, its sister paper the Pioneer. It was during this period that he discovered his flair for writing.
Returning to England in 1889, Kipling won instant success with 'Barrack-Room Ballads' which he followed up with several acclaimed short stories. He married Carrie Wolcott in 1892 and lived with her in Vermont, USA for a time while writing 'Captains Courageous' and 'The Jungle Book'. The couple's first two children Josephine and Elsie were born in Vermont during this period.
After a family quarrel saw the Kiplings return to England in 1896, Rudyard's life began to unravel and, in early 1899, his daughter Josephine died on a visit to the USA.
By now Kipling was widely regarded at the 'People's Laureate' and the 'poet of Empire' and produced some of his most memorable works including 'Kim' and the 'Just So Stories'.
Life was never the same after his daughter's death and in 1902 Kipling sought the seclusion of Batemans where he spent the rest of his days and wrote 'Puck of Pook's Hill' and, perhaps, his most famous poem 'If'.
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