Alice Caroline Kipling (4 April 1837 – 22 November 1910) was one of the

MacDonald sisters The Macdonald sisters were four English women of part-Scottish descent born during the 19th century, notable for their marriages to well-known men. Alice, Georgiana, Agnes and Louisa were the daughters of Reverend George Browne Macdonald (1805–18 ...

, Englishwomen of the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwa ...

, four of whom were notable for their contribution to the arts and their marriages to well-known men. A writer and poet, she was the mother of the author

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)'' The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

, aunt of British Prime Minister

Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...

, and sister-in-law of

Edward Poynter Sir Edward John Poynter, 1st Baronet (20 March 183626 July 1919) was an English painter, designer, and draughtsman, who served as President of the Royal Academy. Life Poynter was the son of architect Ambrose Poynter. He was born in Paris, ...

and

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman ...

Early years

Alice Kipling was born as Alice Caroline MacDonald in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

, England in 1837, the eldest of the five surviving daughters of Reverend George Browne MacDonald (1805–1868), a Wesleyan Methodist minister, and Hannah Jones (1809–1875). In her youth Alice MacDonald wrote

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's inventio ...

s. She was described as:

"...slender, pale complexion, dark brown hair and grey eyes, with black lashes and delicately pencilled eyebrows. In those eyes lay the chief fascination of her face. So expressive were they that they seemed to deepen or pale in colour according to passing emotion .. it was impossible to predict how she would act at any given point. There was a certain fascination in this, and fascinating she certainly was..."

Marriage and India

John Lockwood Kipling John Lockwood Kipling (6 July 1837 – 26 January 1911) was an English art teacher, illustrator and museum curator who spent most of his career in British Raj, India. He was the father of the author Rudyard Kipling. Life and career Lockwood ...

and Alice MacDonald met in 1863 and courted at

Rudyard Lake Rudyard Lake is a reservoir in Rudyard, Staffordshire, located north-west of the town of Leek, Staffordshire. It was constructed in the late 18th century to feed the Caldon Canal. During the 19th century, it was a popular destination for day ...

Rudyard, Staffordshire Rudyard is a lakeside village in the county of Staffordshire, England, west of Leek and on the shore of Rudyard Lake. Population details as taken at the 2011 census can be found under Horton. The Rudyard railway station was opened by the North ...

, England. They married in

St Mary Abbots St Mary Abbots is a church located on Kensington High Street and the corner of Kensington Church Street in London W8. The present church structure was built in 1872 to the designs of Sir George Gilbert Scott, who combined neo-Gothic and early ...

Church, Kensington on 18 March 1865 and moved to India later the same year. They had been so moved by the beauty of the Rudyard Lake area that when their first child was born they named him after it. Two of Alice's sisters married artists:

Georgiana Georgiana is a Catalan, English, Greek and Romanian name. It is the feminine form of the male name George and a variation of the female names Georgina and Georgia. It comes from the Greek word Γεώργιος, meaning farmer. A variant spelli ...

was married to the painter

, and her sister Agnes to

. Kipling's most famous relative was his first cousin,

, who was

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

three times in the 1920s and '30s. He was the son of Alice's sister Louisa and her husband

Alfred Baldwin Alfred Baldwin may refer to: * Alfred Baldwin (politician) (1841–1908), English businessman and Conservative MP, father of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin * Alfred C. Baldwin III (1936–2020), "shadow man" in the 1972 Watergate break-in *Alfr ...

Harry Ricketts Harry Ricketts (born 1950) is a poet, biographer, editor, anthologist, critic, academic, literary scholar and cricket writer. He has written biographies of Rudyard Kipling and of a dozen British First World War poets. Life Ricketts was bor ...

in his biography of Rudyard Kipling wrote of Alice that she:

"...was lively, witty and talented; in a Jane Austen novel she would have been called accomplished. She wrote and published poems, arranged songs, sang and sewed and knew how to run a household. Her racy, gossipy letters captured acquaintances and social situations in phrases that flickered between mischief and malice. Frederic, her younger brother, thought her 'keen, quick and versatile' beyond anyone he had ever known. She 'saw things at a glance', he recalled, 'and dispatched them in a word'. Her poems showed another side, revealing a deep strain of melancholy..."

In January 1865, John Lockwood Kipling was made Architectural Sculptor and Professor of Modelling at the School of Art and Industry in Bombay. Alice became the mother of

on 30 December 1865. In

Simla Shimla (; ; also known as Simla, the official name until 1972) is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared as the summer capital of British India. After independence, th ...

Lord Dufferin Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava (21 June 182612 February 1902) was a British public servant and prominent member of Victorian society. In his youth he was a popular figure in the court of Queen Vict ...

once said, "Dullness and Mrs Kipling cannot exist in the same room."

Later life

Church of St John the Baptist, Tisbury - geograph

Alice Kipling and John Lockwood Kipling remained in India for many years, including during the period when their children were being educated in England. Alice Kipling published much less of her writing than did her sisters, but some of her poems were published in collections including ''Quartette'' (1885) and in ''Hand in Hand: Verses by a Mother and a Daughter'' (1901), the latter a collaboration with her daughter Alice Fleming (1868–1948). She died in November 1910, three days after suffering a heart attack and is buried beside her husband in the churchyard of St John the Baptist in Tisbury in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, England. Alice Kipling features in the 2002

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

''A Circle of Sisters: Alice Kipling, Georgiana Burne-Jones, Agnes Poynter and Louisa Baldwin'' by Judith Flanders.

Gallery

File:1 Kipling graves Tisbury.jpg, Graves of John Lockwood Kipling and Alice Kipling, St John the Baptist Church, Tisbury, Wiltshire, England. File:2 Kipling graves Tisbury.jpg, Graves of John Lockwood Kipling and Alice Kipling, St John the Baptist Church, Tisbury, Wiltshire, England. File:3 Kipling graves Tisbury.jpg, Grave of John Lockwood Kipling, St John the Baptist Church, Tisbury, Wiltshire, England. File:4 Kipling graves Tisbury.jpg, Grave of John Lockwood Kipling, St John the Baptist Church, Tisbury, Wiltshire, England. File:5 Kipling graves Tisbury.jpg, Grave of Alice Kipling, St John the Baptist Church, Tisbury, Wiltshire, England. File:6 Kipling graves Tisbury.jpg, Grave of Alice Kipling, St John the Baptist Church, Tisbury, Wiltshire, England.

References

External links

* *
Portraits of Alice Kipling
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kipling, Alice 1910 deaths Burials at Tisbury parish church, St John's People from Sheffield 19th-century British women writers 19th-century Scottish poets 20th-century Scottish poets Family of Rudyard Kipling 1837 births