Rudyard Kipling was born in 1865 in Bombay, in the same year as W. B. Yeats but at the opposite end of the British Empire. His father, Lockwood Kipling, was an artist employed in the new art school in Bombay; he later became principal of the art school in Lahore where he was also curator of the Lahore Museum (which features in the opening chapter of
Kim), and did much to foster Indian arts and crafts. Alice Kipling, Rudyard's mother, was one of a spirited and attractive family with connections in the world of the arts and public life. Two of her sisters married the artists Edward Burne-Jones and Edward Poynter, while a third was to become the mother of the politician Stanley Baldwin.
A sister Alice (Trix) was born in 1868. Kipling was to remember his early childhood in Bombay as
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Citation: Kerr, Douglas. "Rudyard Kipling". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 May 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4913, accessed 10 December 2024.]