John Ronald Reuel Tolkien,
was born on the 3rd January, 1892.
He and his brother Hilary, experienced
a difficult childhood; when Tolkien was
just four, they lost their father, Arthur,
to rheumatic fever.
As a widow with low income, his mother
Mabel, home school the brothers and played
a vital role in their early education and
development.
Tolkien was a smart young boy, with a
fascination and thirst for languages.
Tolkien sat the entrance exam for King
Edward's School, Birmingham and passed.
From the Autumn of 1900, for a fee of
12 pounds a year, Tolkien would be
educated in an environment that would help
fulfil his academic potential.
Going to King Edward's was vitally
important to Tolkien; he was an
exceptionally talented boy. King Edward's
offered him a vast amount of scope and also
the company of other boys who were
similarly talented.
Which was probably quite hard fork Tolkien
to find.
Not only did he play rugby but he was a
leading light in the debating society and
the literary society; he was the life and
soul really and he missed the school a
great deal, I think, when he finally had
to leave.
At the age of just 11, Tolkien and his
brother Hilary, lose their mother, Mabel,
to diabetes. Grief stricken, he plunges
himself into school life more energetically
than before. Academically he excels, but
in 1905, meets his intellectual rival,
Christopher Wiseman.