J. R. R. Tolkien had a aptitude for languages from an early age. His love of myths and legends and a desire to tell stories brought us the tales of Middle-earth in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. But before the fiction came army service in World War I and an academic career.

Family Life

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State. His father, Arthur Reuel, manager of the Bloemfontein branch of the Bank of Africa, died of rheumatic fever in 1896. Tolkien then settled with his mother, Mabel, and younger brother, Hilary, in Sarehole near Birmingham, England.

In 1900, Mabel converted to Catholicism, and Tolkien was a devout Catholic for the rest of his life. When their mother died of diabetes in 1904, John and Hilary became wards of a Catholic priest, Father Francis Morgan. He arranged for the boys to be boarded with an acquaintance.

At the age of 16, Tolkien met and fell in love with a fellow lodger, Edith Bratt. His guardian disapproved of the match and they were separated. Tolkien was made to promise that he would not communicate with Edith until he came of age. He kept this promise, writing his first letter just after midnight on his 21st birthday.

The pair were soon engaged and were married on 22 March 1916. The marriage produced four children: John (1917), Michael (1920), Christopher (1924) and Priscilla (1929).

Education and War Service

J. R. R. Tolkien, 1916 (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

Tolkien was educated at home by his mother until the age of eight. He then passed the entrance examination to King Edward’s School, Birmingham. His time at school was very happy. He excelled at languages, and it was at this time that he had his first introduction to Old and Middle English.

In 1911, he started at Exeter College, Oxford, first reading classics and then changing to English, concentrating on linguistics and philology, the study of the history and development of language. He achieved a first class BA degree in 1915.

After graduating, Tolkien joined the army. He was sent to France in June 1916 to join the 11thBattalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers as a signals officer. From July to October 1916 he saw action at the Somme before succumbing to trench fever on 27 October. He returned to England in November and remained there, in poor health, until the end of the war.