Sir Percy E. Bates' Correspondence with Rudyard Kipling and Carrie Kipling

This Collection contains letters from both Rudyard and Carrie Kipling to Sir Percy E. Bates. It includes correspondence concerning the building and launch of THE QUEEN MARY (also referred to as "534"), sketches by Rudyard Kipling, a draft poem, photographs, and correspondence between Sir Percy E. Bates and Captain Spink of Spink & Son Ltd.

Administrative / biographical background
Sir Percy E. Bates (1879-1946) joined the family business in 1899, and became fourth Baronet in 1903. In 1910 he became a director of Cunard, then chairman in 1930. He also became a director of the Morning Post in 1924, and chairman 1930-1937. He was involved in the development of both THE QUEEN MARY and THE QUEEN ELIZABETH. (Joseph) Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet and journalist, who was also a director of the Morning Post. In 1882, he joined the staff of The Civil and Military Gazette and The Pioneer, in Lahore, where he became assistant editor, serving until 1889. He then settled in London, but travelled in China, Japan, America, Africa and Australia. Carrie (Caroline) Balestier (1862-1939) was American born and married Kipling in 1892. For a time the Kiplings lived in America, but from 1902 they resided at Batemans, in Sussex, England. Rudyard Kipling was involved in the founding of the National Maritime Museum and chose the Museum's name, which he suggested at a meeting with Lord Stanhope (1880-1967), first chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Maritme Museum. Kipling died before the Museum opened. Upon his death, Carrie Kipling became custodian of her husband's literary legacy, and she donated some of her late husband's books to the Museum, which contain Kipling's bookplate.