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.