Rudyard Kipling“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” –Rudyard Kipling. Rudyard Kipling was born on December 30, 1865 in Bombay, India. Kipling spent the first six years of his idyllic life in India until his family returned to England in 1871. After six months of living in England his parents abandoned him and his three-year-old sister, leaving them to the Holloway family, who Once they mistreated him physically and psychologically, this left him with a sense of betrayal and scars mentally, but it was then that Kipling began to cultivate a love for literature. Between 1878 and 1882 he attended the United Services College at Westward Ho, north Devon. The College was a new and very harsh boarding school where, short-sighted and physically fragile, he was once again teased and bullied, but where, nevertheless, he developed a fierce loyalty. In 1882 Kipling returned to India, where he spent the next seven years working in various capacities as a journalist and editor. Kipling also began to write about India itself and Anglo-Indian society. This is where Kipling's admiration began one day to be part of the British Army. In 1890 Kipling returned to England and was a well-known poet as well as an author. Kipling was the highest paid poet of his time at the age of 32. Rudyard Kipling's incredible support for the British war effort meant that his poems, such as Boots, The Last of the Light Brigade, and Tommy, conveyed the theme that soldiers are rarely seen as heroes until freedom is at stake. . "Tommy" is one of Kipling's most popular poems; is included in the barrack room ballads and... in the center of the sheet... pect should be shown to the soldiers, whether it is wartime or people are enjoying freedom. Works Cited Allen, Charles. Kipling Sahib: India and the Creation of Rudyard Kipling. New York: Pegasus Books, 2009. Print. Gilmour, David. The Long Recession: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2002. Print. "Rudyard Kipling". 2014. The Biography Channel website. March 10, 11.14am "Rudyard Kipling." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 9 March 2014. "Rudyard Kipling: Summary and Analysis of the Poems." Rudyard Kipling: Poetry Study Guide: Summary and Analysis of "Tommy." Np, nd Web. 6 April 2014. "Snell, Katherine. “Poetry or Verse.” Kipling's Poetry. NP, nd Web. 11 March. 2014.