Mary (May) Dunsterville, later Mrs Lionel Armitage, was the youngest sister of Lionel Charles Dunsterville (1865-1946), the model for 'Stalky' Corkoran, hero of Rudyard Kipling's Stalky & Co . Lionel Dunsterville attended the United Service College, Westward Ho, where he was a contemporary of Kipling, and joined the Indian Army, from which he retired with the rank of Major-General. He described his experiences in his published memoirs, Stalky's reminiscences, which culminate in his command of 'Dunsterforce' on the Perso-Russian frontier in 1918. Towards the end of his life, Dunsterville was President of the Kipling Society.
From the guide to the Lionel Dunsterville: Letters to Mary Dunsterville, c. 1875-1922, (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)
