Rudyard Kipling died on January 18th 1936, in hospital in
London, not long after his 70th birthday. Incidentally, January 18th is also
the date on which Kipling got married – in 1892.
He might have lived longer if the source of his suffering
and illness had been correctly diagnosed and suitably treated much earlier.
I was amused to read that Rudyard Kipling's death was
prematurely reported in a magazine to which he immediately wrote, "I've
just read that I am dead. Don't forget to delete me from your list of
subscribers."
King George V, who was also born in 1865 and who was a
personal friend of Kipling’s, died two days later, on 20th January 1936. He too
might have lived longer, but perhaps by a few hours only, if he had not
received a certain treatment: his death was deliberately speeded up with a
lethal injection from his doctor so that the announcement could appear in the
morning papers.
It was George V who made the first ever royal Christmas speech, which was broadcast on the radio in 1932. I was interested to learn recently that it was Kipling who composed the script for the personal message that King George delivered on Christmas Day to all his peoples throughout the Empire.
Kipling, who was a member of the War Graves Commission,
also prepared on an important speech for King George to make when visiting war
graves in France and Belgium.
They both lived through the First World War; perhaps it
is for the best that they didn’t live to see WWII.
When Kipling died, his best work was far behind him and
his reputation was in decline. Yet books
about the man, the writer and the political thinker are still in demand. The
following extract is from a review of an award-winning book published in 2002
that does much to restore Kipling’s standing:
“The Elizabeth Longford Historical Biography prize has
been awarded to David Gilmour's superbly revisionist work The Long Recessional:
The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling, which triumphantly succeeds in rescuing
Kipling's reputation as a significant political thinker…
Gilmour points out how often his subject was proved right
in many, if not most, of his predictions. Kipling predicted the Boers would
establish apartheid if they were allowed to; as early as the mid-1890s, he
warned that the Kaiser would unleash an aggressive world war; he said that
communal genocide in the Punjab would accompany any over-hasty transfer of
power in India; and he denounced the appeasement of Adolf Hitler. It is a
noble, but by no means exhaustive, list.
Of course, it is as the finest phrase-maker since
Shakespeare that Kipling will be remembered; many of the phrases we associate
with the First World War and its commemoration were his.”
The entire review can be read here.
I wonder how many more books about Rudyard Kipling will
be written between now and the 100th anniversary in 2036.
Rudyard Kipling with King George V:
Memorial Service for Rudyard Kipling at Westminster Abbey in London, January 24th 1936:
 |
