30th December: Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling was born on this date in 1865. Here are 10 things you might not know about him.

1. His parents, Alice Kipling (née MacDonald) and John Lockwood Kipling, named their son after Rudyard Lake in Rudyard, Staffordshire, England, where they met and courted.
2. Stanley Baldwin, Conservative Prime Minister of the UK three times in the 1920s and 1930s, was Kipling's first cousin.
3. Rudyard Kipling was the first English-language writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which he won in 1907 at the age of 42 - so he's also the youngest ever recipient of that particular prize.
4. Early editions of his books had a swastika printed on their covers because it was Indian sun symbol conferring good luck and the Sanskrit word meaning "fortunate" or "well-being". However, he refused to have the symbol on his books once the Nazis came to power. Kipling was the first person to use the term "Hun" as an anti-German insult in his 1902 poem The Rowers.
5. Kipling wrote two science fiction short stories set in the 21st century, With the Night Mail and As Easy As A. B. C.
6. A French soldier, Maurice Hammoneau, was saved during the First World War when a bullet was stopped by his copy of Rudyard Kipling's Kim, which he had in his breast pocket. Hammoneau presented Kipling with the book (with the bullet still embedded) and his Croix de Guerre as a token of gratitude. When Hammoneau had a son, Kipling insisted on returning the book and medal to him.
7. Kipling's own son was killed in the First World War which led to Kipling being involved in the Imperial War Graves Commission. He chose the words that appear on war graves and monuments: "Their Name Liveth For Evermore" (Ecclesiasticus 44.14, KJV); "Known unto God" for the gravestones of unidentified servicemen; and the inscription "The Glorious Dead" on the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London.
8. Kipling was a keen golfer. Arthur Conan Doyle taught him to play. Kipling was so keen that he even played in the Snow using balls which had been painted red.
9. The name "Akela" for the adult leader of a cub pack comes from the leader of the Seeonee wolf pack in The Jungle Book.
10. Kipling has an extinct species of crocodile named after him, Goniopholis kiplingi, "in recognition for his enthusiasm for natural sciences".