Horatio Boileau Goad was a policeman who rose to be the secretary of the Municipal Corporation of Simla

Shimla

Shimla , formerly known as Simla, is the capital city of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of the British Raj in India. A popular tourist destination, Shimla is often referred to as the "Queen of Hills," a term coined by the British...

, British India. He had an extraordinary knowledge of local languages and customs and was a master of disguise. He was the eldest son of Major Samuel Boileau Goad

Samuel Boileau Goad

Samuel Boileau Goad was a major of the 1st Bengal European Light Cavalry and one of the principal property owners in Simla, India during the years of British rule. By his death, Goad had accumulated no less than 33 properties in the town. He was the father of Horatio Boileau Goad....

 who built and owned 33 homes in Simla. Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling

Joseph Rudyard Kipling was an English poet, short-story writer, and novelist chiefly remembered for his celebration of British imperialism, tales and poems of British soldiers in India, and his tales for children. Kipling received the 1907 Nobel Prize for Literature...

 based the character Strickland

Strickland

The English surname Strickland is derived from the Norse word Stercaland, which is found in Westmorland to the south of Penrith. It did not become a family name until after 1179, when Walter de Castlecarrock married Christian de Leteham, an heiress to the local estate that now includes the villages...

 in Plain Tales from the Hills

Plain Tales from the Hills

Plain Tales from the Hills is the first collection of short stories by Rudyard Kipling. Out of its 40 stories, "eight-and-twenty", according to Kipling's Preface, were initially published in the Civil and Military Gazette in Lahore, Punjab, British India, between November 1886 and June 1887...

on Goad. Goad committed suicide in 1896.