Kipling-Beresford & Kipling-Dunsterville Letters

Introduction

George Beresford (1864–1938) and Lionel Dunsterville (1865–1946) were friends and contemporaries of Kipling and, respectively, the models for M’Turk and Stalky in his Stalky & Co (1899) collection of stories. The three met at United Services College and these two collections provide an intimate and authoritative picture of Kipling’s schooldays which throws light on how the writer was regarded by his school companions as the years passed.
George Beresford’s relationship with Kipling is recorded in his memoir, Schooldays with Kipling (1936), written shortly after Rudyard’s death. Beresford’s papers contain documentation relating to its publication, ten letters and cards from Kipling, papers and photographs concerning the United Services College, and documents of the Kipling Society from the 1930s. Beresford’s papers were purchased from his grandson, Nick Wilson, in 1998.

Lionel Dunsterville attached great importance to his association with Kipling and, over the years, amassed a collection of letters and documents relating to his schooldays and friendships. He went on to become the first president of the Kipling Society in 1927. In 1943, Dunsterville sold many of the letters he had received from Kipling to Elsie Bambridge, Kipling’s daughter, and many of these can be found in the main Archive. The Kipling–Dunsterville Letters, however, contain those items with which Dunsterville could not bear to part in his lifetime. These comprise the present collection which was bought at auction in December 1996. The University of Sussex Library purchased the letters with the help of the Heritage Memorial Fund and an anonymous donor.