Alastair Grahame or 'Mouse'

Alastair Grahame was the only child of Kenneth and Elspeth Grahame. He adored his father’s stories from an early age, but wasn’t always a quietly contented listener. In fact, his behaviour could be terrible and it has been suggested that the character of Toad was developed partly as his father’s way of teaching him the difference between right and wrong.

In 1920 Alastair died in his second year at the University of Oxford on the railway tracks in Port Meadow. The likely cause was suicide, and from this point on the Grahames never really settled, selling up homes and travelling frequently abroad.

Alastair lies buried near his father, in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford.

Pictured: Alastair Grahame in 1912