World War I

Tolkien in 1916, wearing his British Army uniform.

"Who battled have with bloody hands
Through evil times in barren lands,
To whom the voice of guns
Speaks and no longer stuns..."

― Geoffrey Bache Smith, A Spring Harvest

J.R.R. Tolkien served in the British Army during World War I (or the "Great War"), most notably in the bloody Battle of the Somme. The earliest works of the Legendarium—collected in The Book of Lost Tales Part Two—were began during the conflict. The extent to which the war and Tolkien's experience of it are reflected in his written work is a matter of much interest in Tolkien scholarship.

Participants

Barrovians:

• J.R.R. Tolkien
• Christopher Wiseman
• Robert Gilson†
• G.B. Smith†
• T.K. Barnsley†
• Ralph Payton†

Others

• C.S. Lewis
• Hilary Tolkien
• Hugo Dyson, wounded at Passchendaele

Timeline

See also Timeline of World War I at Wikipedia

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1919

• February 17 - Hilary Tolkien returns home.
• June 28 - The war officially ends, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
• July 15 - Tolkien is released from service.
• July 16 - Tolkien is officially demobilized.

External links

• J.R.R. Tolkien's army commission application
• Why World War One Is at the heart of Lord of the Rings by John Garth