Rudyard Kipling was born in India and lived there until he was six. He went to school in England and spent the holidays with his aunt and uncle, who had a country house in Rottingdean. Here he spent much of his time with his cousin, Stanley Baldwin (who later became Prime Minister.) Kipling loved walking up on the Downs behind the village, talking to the shepherds and farmers and hearing stories about Sussex.
After he married and had become a famous writer, he bought “The Elms” in Rottingdean as a family home. Some of his best-known stories were written here for his daughter Josephine, including “Kim” and the “Just-So Stories.”
everal of his loveliest poems are about Sussex; he writes about “The Weald and the Marsh and the Chalk Country.” Another is just called “Sussex”. A rather mysterious one is called “The Way Through the Woods”. It seems to have a ghost in it!
John, his only son, was killed in World War One. As a result, Kipling spent some of the remainder of his life working for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Read his poem called “My Boy Jack” and see if it makes you cry.
Kipling died in 1936, a few days before his friend, King George V. It was said at the time that the King had sent his trumpeter on ahead of him. Kipling is buried in Westminster Abbey, in Poets’ Corner.