Alice MacDonald Kipling

Alice Caroline Kipling (née MacDonald) was born on 4 April 1837 in Sheffield, England. She was the eldest of five surviving daughters born to Reverend George Browne MacDonald (1805–1868), a Wesleyan Methodist minister, and Hannah Jones (1809–1875). During her youth, she wrote sonnets and was described as a slender woman with a pale complexion, dark brown hair, grey eyes, black lashes, and delicately pencilled eyebrows. Her expressive eyes reportedly reflected passing emotions and contributed to her captivating appearance.

In 1863, Alice MacDonald met John Lockwood Kipling, whom she would marry in St Mary Abbots Church, Kensington, on 18 March 1865. Following their marriage, the couple relocated to India later that year. The Kiplings were notably inspired by Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire, England, when naming their first-born son Rudyard, born on 30 December 1865. During their time in India, John Lockwood Kipling served as Architectural Sculptor and Professor of Modelling at the School of Art and Industry in Bombay. The couple remained in India for many years, including during the period when their children received their education in England.

Alice Kipling belonged to a family with several notable members. Two of her sisters married prominent artists: Georgiana married Edward Burne-Jones, and Agnes married Edward Poynter. Her first cousin was Stanley Baldwin, who served as Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom three times during the 1920s and 1930s. Baldwin was the son of Louisa MacDonald (Alice’s sister) and Alfred Baldwin.

Contemporaries and biographers have described Alice as lively, witty, and talented. She engaged in various artistic pursuits, including writing and publishing poems, arranging songs, singing, sewing, and managing household affairs. Her correspondence was known for its gossipy tone, combining mischief and malice. Her younger brother, Frederic Ricketts, remarked on her sharpness, describing her as "keen, quick and versatile," capable of perceiving things swiftly and expressing herself concisely. Her poetry revealed a deeper, more melancholic side.

While Alice's literary output was less extensive than that of her sisters, some of her poems were published in collections such as *Quartette* (1885) and *Hand in Hand: Verses by a Mother and a Daughter* (1901), the latter a collaborative work with her daughter Alice Fleming (1868–1948). Alice Kipling died on 22 November 1910 at the age of 73, shortly after suffering a heart attack. She is buried beside her husband in the churchyard of St John the Baptist in Tisbury, Wiltshire, England.

Her life and contributions have been detailed in the 2002 biography *A Circle of Sisters: Alice Kipling, Georgiana Burne-Jones, Agnes Poynter and Louisa Baldwin* by Judith Flanders.