The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Volume 1: Chronology

29 October 1909 J.N.E. Tredennick, a student at King Edward’s School, reads a paper on the American author Oliver Wendell Holmes at a meeting of the School Literary Society (*Societies and clubs).

30 October 1909 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against the 2nd XV of Old Edwardians II. King Edward’s School loses, 8 to 10.

5 November 1909 At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society ‘a small House’ discusses the motion ‘That the heroes of antiquity have been much overrated’. The debate is opened by W.H. Payton, who lays ‘emphasis on the change between the conditions of several thousand years ago and those of to-day’. Rob Gilson speaks in protest, ‘arguing that the heroes of antiquity had an enormous influence for good on the morals and ideals of today’. Vincent Trought gives his maiden address to the Society, confessing that ‘he could never perform the labours of Hercules’ without ‘the beginning and end of modern heroes’ superiority’: beer (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 24, no. 178 (December 1909), pp. 95, 96). The motion fails, 8 votes to 16.

6 November 1909 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at Oakham, Leicestershire, against Oakham School. King Edward’s School loses, 13 to 14.

9 November 1909 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at The Reddings, Moseley, against Moseley II. King Edward’s School loses, 0 to 17.

13 November 1909 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at Lifford, against Kings Norton. King Edward’s School loses, 0 to 30.

19 November 1909 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘That this house deplores the disappearance of the stocks as a form of punishment.’ According to the King Edward’s School Chronicle, ‘J.R.R. Tolkien in a distinctly humorous speech, though somewhat marred by a faulty delivery, advocated the revival of the stocks as an admirable method for the training of the marksmen of this country. It would also benefit the grocers’ trade’ (‘Debating Society’, n.s. 24, no. 178 (December 1909), p. 96). The motion carries, 13 to 12.

26 November 1909 At a meeting of the Literary Society of King Edward’s School the Reverend E.W. Badger, one of the Masters, reads a paper entitled William Morris, Artist, Craftsman and Poet.

Near the end of autumn term 1909 Ronald and Edith ride their bicycles to the Lickey Hills on an afternoon excursion. They leave and return separately so that no one will know they are seeing each other. At the end of the afternoon they have tea at the house in Rednal where Ronald had stayed in the summer, but the woman who provides the tea mentions Ronald’s visit to the caretaker at the Oratory retreat, who mentions it to the cook at the Oratory, and so the news reaches Father Francis Morgan. Father Francis is worried that Ronald is not giving his full attention to work towards a university scholarship, and is shaken when further enquiries reveal more about Ronald and Edith’s clandestine meetings. He demands that their relationship cease.

December 1909 Very soon after this turmoil Ronald goes to Oxford to sit the University scholarship examination, staying in Corpus Christi College. He fails to obtain an award but is young enough to be able to try again next year. He must win an award if he wants to attend the University of Oxford, since his small inheritance from his father’s estate is not enough to pay the fees, nor can Father Francis afford to pay them.

3 December 1909 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘That the sportsman is a better citizen than the student.’ Rob Gilson recommends the novel Tom Brown’s Schooldays by Thomas Hughes as an exception to the opening statement that the heroes of all school tales were those good at games. R.S. Payton makes his maiden address to the Society, stating that ‘the man with no education but sport was often bigoted and narrow-minded’, and Christopher Wiseman makes ‘reference to the battle of Eton’ and digresses ‘on to the [national] Budget’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 25, no. 179 (March 1910), pp. 5, 6). The motion fails, 12 votes to 15.

10 December 1909 The Headmaster of King Edward’s School, Robert Cary Gilson, presents a lecture on ‘Memory’ at a meeting of the Literary Society.

17 December 1909 An Old Boys’ debate is held at King Edward’s School on the motion: ‘That the awakening of the Yellow Races is a menace to the safety of Europe.’ W.H. Payton takes part, arguing that Japan should be considered more important than China, due to its inhabitants’ intense patriotism. The motion passes overwhelmingly, 26 votes to 2.

1910 (#ulink_0c0068b6-7d9c-52c5-b519-3b1a8f4cfb97)

1 January 1910 Ronald writes in his earliest surviving diary: ‘Depressed and as much in dark as ever. God help me. Feel weak and weary’ (quoted in Biography, p. 42). His depression is due not only to his disappointment at Oxford, but also to the difficulty of his relationship with Edith. He is torn between his feelings for her and his duty to the guardian to whom he owes so much. Although Father Francis has not specifically ordered Ronald not to see Edith again, his wishes are clear. – During this month he finds new lodgings for Ronald and Hilary with Thomas Macsherry, the director of a whiskey distillery, and his wife Julia at 4 Highfield Road, Edgbaston. Ronald will live at this address until going up to *Oxford in autumn 1911.

Spring term 1910 At King Edward’s School Ronald gives a lecture to the First Class entitled The Modern Languages of Europe: Derivations and Capabilities. After he takes up three one-hour sessions and still does not finish, the master calls a halt. During the spring and summer terms, there are seventeen pupils in Class I. Hilary Tolkien is now in Class V, Section B4.

20 January 1910 Ronald feels that he and Edith must discuss what they are to do. They meet without asking Father Francis for permission. They spend part of the day in the countryside discussing plans, but also visit E.H. Lawley & Sons, jewellers, at 24 New Street, Birmingham. Edith buys Ronald a pen for ten shillings and sixpence as a belated birthday present; he spends the same on a wrist watch as a twenty-first birthday present for Edith.

21 January 1910 Ronald and Edith celebrate her twenty-first birthday by having tea together. But their meeting is seen and reported to Father Francis: he now forbids Ronald to meet or even write to Edith. By now, in fact, she has decided to move to *Cheltenham to live with two elderly family friends, Mr and Mrs C.H. Jessop. Ronald may see her to say goodbye on the day she leaves Birmingham, and then there is to be no contact until he comes of age three years later.

23 January 1910 At King Edward’s School Ronald takes part in a debate on the motion: ‘That the vulgar are the really happy.’ He argues that there is no reason why this should be true of the vulgar as a class, and the fact that vulgarity and happiness sometimes accompany one another is no proof. Vincent Trought thinks that ‘the man who ate with his mouth too full could never be really happy’, Rob Gilson argues that education is ‘the direct opposite of vulgarity’, and W.H. Payton speaks briefly in the negative (King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 25, no. 179 (March 1910), pp. 7, 8). The motion fails, 10 votes to 17.

11 February 1910 The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘That lawn-tennis is physically and socially a superior game to cricket.’ Christopher Wiseman demonstrates ‘from personal experience of “a friend,” that cricket does not provide sufficient exercise for a young boy’, while Vincent Trought inveighs ‘against those who wished to reject our national pastime and accept a foreign upstart in its stead’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 25, no. 179 (March 1910), pp. 8, 9). The motion passes, 15 votes to 7.

12 February 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against Kings Norton. King Edward’s School wins, 11 to 8.

15 February 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against Birkenhead School, Oxton, Cheshire. King Edward’s School wins, 20 to 0.

16 February 1910 Ronald writes in his diary that he had prayed that he would see Edith by accident, and his prayer had been answered. ‘Saw her at 12.55 at Prince of Wales [presumably the Prince of Wales Theatre on Broad Street]. Told her I could not write and arranged to see her off on Thursday fortnight. Happier but so much long to see her just once to cheer her up. Cannot think of anything else’ (quoted in Biography, p. 43). See note.

18 February 1909 King Edward’s School student R.B. Naish reads a paper on Robert Browning at a meeting of the Literary Society.

19 February 1910 Ronald plays in 1st XV home match against the University of Birmingham. King Edward’s School loses, 5 to 6.

21 February 1910 Ronald writes in his diary: ‘I saw a dejected little figure sloshing along in a mac and tweed hat and could not resist crossing and saying a word of love and cheerfulness. This cheered me up a little for a while. Prayed and thought hard’ (quoted in Biography, p. 43).

23 February 1910 Ronald and Edith meet again accidentally.

25 February 1910 The Annual Parliamentary debate is held at King Edward’s School on the motion: ‘That the State recognises the right of its citizens to work, and undertakes the responsibility of providing it, if necessary.’ W.H. Payton takes part, arguing that ‘the scheme would prove not only inefficient, but demoralising to the character of the community’ and advocating tariff reform as ‘the only true remedy for the evil’ (King Edward’s School Chronicle, n.s. 25, no. 179 (March 1910), p. 9). The motion fails, 8 votes to 12.

26 February 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at Elmdon Road, against Bromsgrove School. King Edward’s School loses, 8 to 21. – At least one of Ronald’s unplanned meetings with Edith has been reported to Father Francis. Ronald writes in his diary that he has ‘had a dreadful letter’ from his guardian ‘saying I had been seen with a girl again, calling it evil and foolish. Threatening to cut short my University career if I did not stop. Means I cannot see E[dith]. Nor write at all. God help me. Saw E. at midday but would not be with her. I owe all to Fr. F[rancis] and so must obey’ (quoted in Biography, p. 43).

2 March 1910 Edith leaves Birmingham for Cheltenham, Ronald has a last glimpse of her as she rides her bicycle to the station. Although Edith will miss Ronald, she will now live in greater comfort, and she will be able to play the piano as much as she likes, a pleasure forbidden her by Mrs Faulkner.

4 March 1910 W.H. Payton reads a paper on The Ingoldsby Legends at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society.

11 March 1910 In another Latin debate at King Edward’s School Ronald plays the part of a Greek ambassador, ‘Eisphorides Acribus Polyglotteus’, and speaks entirely in Greek. On another such occasion, according to Humphrey Carpenter, Ronald ‘astonished his schoolfellows when, in the character of a barbarian envoy, he broke into fluent Gothic; and on a third occasion he spoke in Anglo-Saxon. These activities occupied many hours …’ (Biography, p. 48).

12 March 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at Elmdon Road, against the Old Edwardians II. King Edward’s School wins, 30 to 6.

18 March 1910 Former student E. Muncaster reads a paper on ‘Witchcraft’ at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society.

26 March 1910 (Easter Saturday) With the permission of Father Francis, Ronald writes a long letter to Edith. This ends with a poem, probably Morning, which he will later date to March 1910 – his earliest dated surviving verse. He encloses two devotional pamphlets, The Stations of the Cross and The Seven Words of the Cross. – At about this time Ronald begins to write original poems in English, in addition to translating poems into Latin as part of the classical curriculum at school. Much of his early poetry celebrates his appreciation of nature and landscape.

5 April 1910 Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry. King Edward’s School wins, 19 to 0. – The School’s annual Open Debate addresses the motion: ‘That the party system has proved itself to be no longer compatible with the sound government of this country.’ W.H. Payton is among those who speak in the affirmative. The motion fails, 20 votes to 30.

6 April 1910 The King Edward’s School Musical and Dramatic Society presents the Annual Open Concert at 7.30 p.m. in the Governors’ Board Room. During the programme Ronald’s friend Rob Gilson recites John of Gaunt’s dying speech from Shakespeare’s Richard II.

From 11 April 1910 Ronald sees a performance of J.M. *Barrie’s Peter Pan at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Birmingham. He writes in his diary: ‘Indescribable but I shall never forget it as long as I live. Wish E[dith] had been with me’ (quoted in Biography, pp. 47–8). The play is presented for six nights and two matinees beginning 11 April.

May 1910 Ronald writes a poem, The Dale Lands.

6 May 1910 King Edward VII dies. George V succeeds to the throne.

June 1910 Ronald writes a poem, Evening.

12 June 1910 Ronald inscribes his Greek edition of The Fifth Book of Thucydides with his name and a Gothic text which he later translated as: ‘I read the words of these books of Greek history in the sixth month of this year; thousand, nine hundreds, ten, of Our Lord: in order to gain the prize given every year to the boy knowing most about Thucydides, and this I inscribed in my books on the twelfth of the sixth (month) after I had already first read through all the words carefully’ (letter to Zillah Sherring, 20 July 1965, Letters, p. 357).

30 June and 2 July 1910 Ronald attends the King Edward’s School Athletic Sports at the School Grounds. He comes third in the One Mile Flat Race, Open.

July 1910 Ronald takes the examinations for the Oxford and Cambridge Higher Certificate, passing in five subjects: Latin, Greek, Elementary Mathematics, Scripture Knowledge (Greek Text), and History, and also satisfies the examiners in English Essay. – He writes a poem, Wood-sunshine, noteworthy among his earliest verse for its references to ‘fairy things tripping so gay’ and ‘sprites of the wood’, a foreshadowing of later writings (Biography, p. 47). He will later date another poem, The Sirens, also to this month.

27 July 1910 Speech Day and Prize-giving at King Edward’s School, followed by various performances. Ronald is awarded the prize for German, and plays the part of the Inspector in a performance in Greek of The Birds by Aristophanes, for which the King Edward’s School Chronicle will single him out for special praise. Rob Gilson and Christopher Wiseman appear in scenes from Shakespeare’s Henry V. – Hilary Tolkien attends his final day at King Edward’s School. At some time before April 1911 he will be given a post in Walter Incledon’s family business, as a hardware merchant’s clerk.

28 July–6 August 1910 Ronald attends camp with the King Edward’s School Officers Training Corps. Sixty-four cadets parade at the School on the morning of 28 July under the command of Captain R.H. Hume before travelling by special train from Snow Hill Station, Birmingham, to *Aldershot in Hampshire. They and cadets from other schools pitch camp on Farnborough Common and spend two days drilling in preparation for an inspection by the Duke of Connaught on the Saturday afternoon. During their field training the cadets are taken in groups to visit the depot of military airplanes and airships in the neighbouring Farnborough. A battery of field artillery is demonstrated to them. During the second week, the cadets are inspected by Field Marshals Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener. ‘The weather was on the whole good, but on two evenings the rain fell in torrents and nearly washed out the Camp’ (R.H. Hume, ‘O.T.C. Annual Camp, Aldershot, 1910’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 26, no. 183 (November 1910), p. 74).

Summer 1910 Ronald takes a holiday in *Whitby on the northeast coast of England. He makes at least seven drawings of the busy fishing port and the ruined abbey on the cliff above the town, including Whitby, Ruins at West End of Whitby Abbey (Artist and Illustrator, figs. 9–10), and ‘Sketch of Whitby’ (Life and Legend, p. 19). – Either this summer or in 1911 he visits his Aunt Jane Neave in St Andrews, *Scotland, where she is Lady Warden of University Hall. While there he draws a view, St Andrews from Kinkell Brae.

Autumn term 1910 At King Edward’s School Ronald is now a Prefect, Secretary of the Debating Society, Football Secretary, House Football Captain, and a corporal in the Officers Training Corps, each of which posts has various duties. He is also, with Christopher Wiseman and Rob Gilson, a Sub-Librarian. See note. Another future member of the T.C.B.S., *Sidney Barrowclough, is now among the twenty boys in the First Class. Despite these distractions, Ronald is (or is supposed to be) working hard for his second attempt to gain an Oxford scholarship. – During his last year at school Ronald will discover the Finnish *Kalevala in the English translation by W.F. Kirby.

7 October 1910 Ronald makes the opening speech at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society, in favour of the motion: ‘That this House considers that the Debating Society does more harm than good.’ He accuses the Society of encouraging the growth of punning and draws ‘a harrowing picture of the devastation wrought through this malpractice by members of the Society in Camp at Aldershot’. Among other speakers, Vincent Trought ultimately suggests that a debate precede every meal as an appetizer and offering a ‘sweeping dictum that “this House keeps its members from the ‘Pubs’”’; Rob Gilson explains ‘impatiently that his one and only grievance against the Society was this educational tendency’; R.S. Payton applies ‘his wit for a sentence or so to the Secretary’; and Christopher Wiseman rises ‘distorted and inarticulate with internal merriment’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 26, no. 183 (November 1910), pp. 69, 70). The motion fails, 5 votes to 15. See note.

14 October 1910 Rob Gilson reads a paper on John Ruskin at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society.