Rudyard Kipling
Keith Larson

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was a respected British author who knew Lord Baden-Powell.  He wrote the Jungle Book and Captains Courageous.  These books earned him the Nobel prize in Literature in 1907.

Kipling was the author of "The Scout's Patrol Song" which was the official Boy Scout song in the U.K.  Part I of the 1908 booklet, "Scouting For Boys" included a condensed version of Kipling's "Kim."  He was also the father of a Scout and later a commissioner in the British Scouting program.  In 1924, he attended a rally of 6 thousand Wolf Cubs at the Imperial Jamboree at Wembley where he witnessed what Baden-Powell had made of his writings.  The Jungle Book characters formed the basis for the organization of Cub Packs.

Kims Gun Maximum Card

Kipling's literary work have been commemorated on two occasions.  The first was 3rd National Pakistan Boy Scout Jamboree in 1960.  This stamp featured "Kims Gun" from his stories of colonial India.

Rudyard Kipling

Great Britain issued a booklet pane of 10 self-adhesive, non-denominated First Class stamps, on January 15, 2002.  The stamps were issued to note the 100th Anniversary of the "Just So Stories for Little Children" written by Rudyard Kipling, in 1902.

"If you can dream—and not make dreams your master; . . . Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!"