Amateur Film of Rudyard Kipling

Paddleboats ahoy! Charming film of Rudyard Kipling and young family guests on the ponds of his Sussex estate.

Kipling afloat! The celebrated children's author has fun on the water with family guests in this charming home movie from 1935. Filmed in the gardens and ponds of Bateman's, his Sussex estate, an elderly Rudyard Kipling shares a paddleboat with Robin Howard, the grandson of PM Stanley Baldwin, while younger siblings enjoy the sunshine with mum and dad.

Rudyard Kipling was a cousin of three-time British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin - his Aunt Louisa (his mother Alice's sister) was Baldwin's mother. Baldwin's daughter Leonora married Sir Arthur Howard, whose children appear in the film. Robin Howard, CBE was their eldest and became a dance patron and philanthropist who founded The Place, the permanent home of The London Contemporary Dance School.