“Rudyard Kipling” by Mortimer Menpes, R. I.

Rudyard Kipling

Mortimer Menpes

1901

Watercolor

Source: War Impressions, facing 150.

[Click on image to enlarge it.]

Text and formatting by George P. Landow.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the University of Toronto and the Internet Archive and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one.]

Menpes’s Reminiscences of Kipling

I well remember my first glimpse of Mr. Rudyard Kipling. I was travelling from Bloemfontein to Cape Town, and we had stopped at the little station called Edenburg. I was strolling up and down the station, noting colour and shadow and lines of perspective, when I suddenly became aware of an atmosphere of muddle and excitement. A portmanteau flew past my head; I dodged it rapidly ; another followed, and then came a big canvas bag. I looked up, wondering what was the matter. A short, sturdy, spectacled young man, clad in the inevitable khaki, and with a great flourish and bustle, jumped out of the railway carriage and began hauling away at the luggage which he had recklessly strewn upon the platform. A whisper went round the assembled crowd, "It's Kipling," and a number of willing hands seized hold of the flying baggage. Mr. Kipling himself flew after soda-water bottles and various eatables, collected an armful, and rushed down to a carriage where were sick and dis- abled Tommies, all hot and weary. Mr. Kipling was busy, with that wonderful sympathy of his, attending to his beloved Tommies, and all this without affecta- tion or desire for notice, bent only on meeting their immediate wants. I realised then how it was he had so thoroughly got into their life and seized hold of their hearts. He had a startling face, rather pale features, black eyebrows tremendously developed, a black moustache, three blobs in vivid contrast to the pallid face, a face that attracted by its power, its strength and determination, keen, vivid, original. He lived much in the hospital. He would go into a ward, throw himself on a sick man's bed; and instantly he would be friends with that man, learning his history, getting at his life, sympathising with his troubles, laughing and joking, perhaps writing a letter for the wounded man. [121-22]

Related Material

The Boer War

References

Menpes, Mortime. War Impressions Being A Record in Colour. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1901. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California Library. Web. 13 December 2014.

Last modified 14 December 2014