JISCMail - RUDYARD-KIPLING Archives

While Leslie Haden Guest has 'Bourne End' given as his address in the Kipling Journal of October, 1928, I feel that that might well be just a coincidence and he is not linked directly to either Thornbie or Kipling, a thought reinforced by the fact that Dr Haden Guest was a convinced socialist and Labour MP for Southwark from 1924-27 (and for North Islington 1937-50).

According to census records in 1901 and 1911, Thornbie was occupied by John Alexander Swanston (1844-1918), with wife Fanny Elizabeth, née Nash,and family. His occupation was given as Merchant and Landowner and it was presumably he who had Thornbie built in 1898. The family also had a house in Cromwell Road, Kensington, where his widow, Fanny, died in 1921. I have not found in National Archive records what happened to Thornbie after their deaths.

The last four lines of the verse in Mrs Ross's enquiry are, as David James has pointed out, identical to the last verse of an entry in the guest book of Max and Gladys Aitken(later Lord and Lady Beaverbrook) at Cherkley Court, the guest book being a Christmas present from Rudyard Kipling in 1911 before the couple moved in in 1912. The guest book was eventually presented to Franklin D. Roosevelt but a photocopy of the dedicatory poem was kept in the house, of which I also have a copy.

The poem, titled 'Home', has six 8 line verses, the first five recording the setting up of the first home by a caveman and his mate and the discovery of the need for friends to invite to share in it. I reproduce the last verse below, together with the date and Kipling's signature. In Mrs Ross's version, the first three lines have been omitted and the fourth amended to read "Thornbie" instead of Cherkley Court.

Despite Kipling's use of his 'documentary' printing which he used on presentation copies of poems and simulated documents for his children, it should be possible to tell if the Thornbie version was written by Kipling.

As to whom Kipling was visiting at Thornbie, it could well have been the Swansons and, if so, then perhaps some time around 1911 while his dedication to the Aitken's was fresh in his mind. That would also have been not too long after writing 'The Cat That Walked by Itself' with its caveman/cavewoman theme. A possible link to the Swanson family might be that their second son was Lieutenant Arthur William Swanston, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, killed at Ermolo fighting the Boers on 16 October 1900, whom Kipling might have met that spring.

While a similar connection could be made for Dr Haden Guest, who was a civil surgeon in South Africa at the same time, Dr Haden Guest only appears with London addresses up to 1924 and I have not found any later addresses.

Looking into the deeds to Thornbie, as Alastair Wilson advises, should show who succeeded the Swanstons and a further search for a Kipling connection will be needed. If Haden-Guest should be found to have lived there at some time, then the search is probably over and my initial conjecture wrong.

Since I am not sure that my inserted picture will reproduce on the JISCMAIL forum, this is also copied to Amanda Ross for information.