Alice Kipling was born in 1868, three years after her famous brother, Rudyard Kipling, in Bombay, India. Their father was John Lockwood Kipling, an artist who was principal of the Jeejeebyhoy Art School. Their mother was Alice Macdonald Kipling, who was related to several painters and Stanley Baldwin, a future Prime Minister. In 1871, the Kipling family returned to England. When their parents left for India a second time, Alice and Rudyard stayed with the Holloway family in Southsea.
Alice Kipling was educated at private schools and moved back to India at the age of 16. There, she met and married British army officer, John Fleming, in 1889. Alice published poems and short stories about Indian life under the name Beatrice Kipling. She wrote prolifically in the 1890s, publishing her first novel, The Heart of the Maid under the name Beatrice Grange. Her second novel, A Pinchbeck Goddess, followed in 1897.
Alice met artist, Evelyn Pickering de Morgan, in 1897. De Morgan’s spiritualist-inspired paintings exemplified her interest in the social issues of her time, including poverty, socialism and women’s rights. It was in Evelyn that Alice found a kindred spirit. She was free to speak openly with de Morgan about spiritual topics that her husband and family refused to discuss.
Alice wrote poems to accompany at least four of De Morgan’s paintings. They shared an enthusiasm for spiritualism, specifically in automatic writing. Alice experimented with automatic writing and became a well-known psychic, working under the name “Mrs. Holland.”
Between about 1898 and 1901, Alice suffered from a deep depression. Some believe it was due to an unhappy marriage. She returned to England in 1902. She wrote articles under the name “Mrs. Holland” for magazines published by the Society for Psychical Research. She also participated in the society’s cross-correspondence tests, in which several automatic writers produced scripts that only became meaningful when combined.
After her brother’s death in 1936, Fleming focused her attention on the Kipling Society. She helped rebuild her brother’s tarnished reputation as an author. She died in 1948.
Additional Reading:
Berger, Arthur S., and Joyce Berger (1991) The Encyclopedia of Parapsychology and Psychical Research. Paragon House, New York.
Johnson, Alice (1908) “On the Automatic Writing of Mrs. Holland.” Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research 21.
Oberhausen, Judy (2009) “Sisters in spirit: Alice Kipling Fleming, Evelyn Pickering de Morgan and 19th-century spiritualism.” The British Art Journal, Vol. 9, No. 3 (Spring 2009), pp. 38-42 Published by: British Art Journal
Thank you for researching so many people who were involved. Not all became famous but all added to the growth of the knowledge and understanding of the time.
Spiritualism has such a rich history of both well-known figures and those not as well known. Thank you, Rev Karen, for researching and sharing these inspiring stories each week on your blog.