T.C.B.S.

T.C.B.S. is an acronym for Tea Club, Barrovian Society. J.R.R. Tolkien and his friends at King Edward's School in Birmingham met regularly at the Barrow Stores, which is where T.C.B.S. got their name. The core members were considered to be the "big four" of Tolkien, Geoffrey Bache Smith, Christopher Wiseman, and Robert Gilson.

The friends continued to stay in contact with each other's literary work until 1916. Almost all of them died in World War I. Of Tolkien's close personal friends, only Christopher Wiseman survived the war, a fact which greatly affected him. Sidney Barrowclough was younger than Tolkien and the other core members of the original club and continued it for some time after they left.

Members

• Thomas "Tea Cake" Barnsley
• Sidney Barrowclough
• Robert Gilson
• Ralph "the Baby" Payton
• Wilfrid "Whiffy" Payton
• Geoffrey Bache Smith
• J.R.R. Tolkien
• Vincent Trought
• Christopher Wiseman

See also

• Tolkien and the Great War