ABSTRACT
John Lockwood Kipling, father of Rudyard Kipling, has for long been known almost entirely in that capacity. The relationship between Lockwood and Rudyard, thus, appears to have been a singularly happy, harmonious, and mutually enriching one. This chapter proposes the enumeration of the seven great gifts that Lockwood bequeathed to Rudyard, which made the son what he became. It then looks at some specific instances of creative collaboration between father and son. The chapter briefly compares and contrasts their respective lives, opinions, inclinations, and achievements, with regard in particular to their engagement with India. Lockwood himself wrote only one book on a compendium of his own observations and folk-lore relating to domestic animals in India, and it was a happy choice of subject. It may not be entirely just to say that Rudyard’s increasingly strident views on India and the Empire were another gift of Lockwood’s to him and a part of his paternal legacy.
