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.
[John Garth] 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 for Tolkien
to find.
[Simon Stacey] 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.
[VO] 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.
[John Garth] Tolkien met his greatest friend
at King Edward's, Christopher Wiseman on
the rugby pitch. A musician, a mathematician;
quite different from Tolkien.
They developed such a strong bond on the rugby
field that they called themselves;
"The Great Twin Brethren", which was a phrase
from "Lays of Ancient Rome" by Lord
Macauley.
[Simon Stacey] They also were friendly rivals
in the school, both being very academic
boys. Wiseman had a formidable intellect
and he was interested in a lot of the things
that Tolkien was getting interested in;
languages, I think he was looking at
Egyptian and was looking at hieroglyphics.
[John Garth] Tolkien and Wiseman must have
helped define each other through their
teenage years because they would argue;
they would argue strongly about all their
beliefs in life.
[Simon Stacey] Wiseman was a very talented
musician; Tolkien was supposed to be tone
deaf but that didn't stop them getting on!
[VO] Tolkien also befriends, son of the
headmaster, Rob Gilson. Tolkien, Wiseman
and Gilson, form a strong bond which will
last throughout their school years and beyond.
Outside of King Edward's, Tolkien's life is
about to change, yet again.
[John Garth] Tolkien was living in lodgings
with his brother, Hilary, and when he was 16
he met fellow lodger, Edith Bratt, who was 19
at the time. And she was a beautiful young
girl; talented pianist and also an orphan.
And the two of them bonded on their shared
sadnesses but also on their hopes and dreams.
The difficulty for Ronald, as she called him,
and Edith, was that he was a Roman Catholic
and she was an Anglican.
[VO] Tolkien's Guardian, Father Francis Morgan,
a Catholic Priest, feels this is major
divide; and also believes that Edith will
distract Tolkien from his attempts to get
into Oxford University.
[John Garth] Father Francis Morgan, forbade
them from seeing each other, or even from
communicating. He was thrown back upon his
friendships at King Edward's and it was
this final phase of his time here, that he
began to flourish and make the place his
own; he and his friends ruled the roost.
[VO] Making the most of his final year at
King Edward's and the friendships he has
formed, Tolkien and his peers create an
informal society.
These young intellectuals gather in the school
library and do what they are forbidden to do:
brew tea. Outside of school hours, they meet
in a cafe at Barrow's Stores in Birmingham
and so, self-mockingly, they call themselves
the "Tea Club and Barrovean Society"
or the TCBS for short.
(nostalgic music)
[John Garth] The core of the TCBS was probably
Tolkien and Wiseman and the others
gravitated around them. There was Robert
Quilter Gilson, the son of the headmaster
here; Rob was a cultured and sociable chap,
he was perhaps the social glue of the group;
he would welcome anyone and find common
cause with them. A gentle artistic fellow
who loved to sketch.
[Simon Stacey] He was a gifted artist and
had ambitions to be an architect.
There was a late arrival, Geoffrey Bache Smith,
who was fascinated by mythology, Celtic
mythology; so this gave him common ground
with Tolkien; it was another of Tolkien's
passions.
[Simon Stacey] Smith was quite an accomplished
and advanced poet who recommended contemporary
poetry to Tolkien. When he started writing
poetry, Tolkien was to a certain extent,
inspired by Smith and the wider group.
And that was really the beginnings of
Tolkien as a writer.
[John Garth] From the beginnings which were
mostly about fun, later on, during the war years,
this developed into a fellowship from which
each of them drew tremendous strength and
comfort.
[VO] Later that year, Tolkien's time at
King Edward's comes to an end and he begins
his first term at Oxford, having successfully
gained entrance.
On the eve of his 21st birthday, and his
independence from Father Francis Morgan,
Tolkien writes to Edith and less than a
week later, they are re-united.
Edith is engaged to marry another man,
but despite almost certain ridicule,
she agrees to break the engagement to be
with her Ronald.
Over the next few months, a growing sense of
trouble brews across Europe and on the 28th
of June, 1914, everything changes.
(gun shot sound)
(solemn music)
Gavrillo Princip is arrested for the
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
A diplomatic crisis ensues and within weeks,
Europe's major powers are at war.
Germany invades Belgium and Britain declares
war on Germany. Parliament issues a call
to arms from the British public.
[Paul Golightly] There isn't a rush to the
colours straight away. It becomes much more
obvious that people are willing to join
up when atrocity stories start to emerge,
then you get a much more concerted rush
to join.
[John Garth] There was an air of excitement
about the war, there was a naive sense that
this would allow young men to fulfil their
potential in a way that wasn't possible in
peace time. There was a tremendous sense
of patriotism and a sense of duty towards
whatever England, or Britain, stood for.
[Paul Golightly] They are attracted to the
idea of a settling of accounts with the Germans,
or at least some of them will be. On the
whole, they thought they were going to give
the Germans a bloody nose.
[John Garth] "The Germans has been dastardly"
and needed to dealt with and shown their place.
[Paul Golightly] Men join up out of economic
necessity and you'll find that in any war.
Life is not very exciting and the romance
and colour of joining the army and being
part of something very big indeed, I'm sure
has some allure.
(solemn music) And they see things
in rather romantic ways, which of course is
doomed to fail; we all know what the First
World War turns into. It's not a war of
movement, of dash and élan; it's not cavalry
charges and distant trumpets; I'm afraid
it's the pitter-patter of machine gun fire
and the crump of artillery that's going to
dominate.
So they, I think, have expectations about what
the war will be like, and I think their main
emotion was, will it be over before I can
get to France.
[John Garth] Tolkien, who's reading covered
ancient heroic literature, that is surprisingly
frank about what happens in war, went into
the war much more open-eyed. He described
himself as a "young man with too much
imagination" and so he did not relish battle
in any sense.
[Paul Golightly] And I think that applies
to, not just men like Tolkien who fought in it,
but also the politicians and generals who
directed it; I think a lot of people
understood that this war could be terrible.
[Simon Stacey] What you get in the letters
between Gilson, Tolkien and Wiseman and
then in Smith's poetry, is a serious
determination to do their duty and that they
should be prepared to give their lives.
A realistic appreciation that this is a dark time
and that they've got to come through it.
[VO] G.B. Smith and Rob Gilson both join
the army in 1914, Tolkien's brother, Hilary,
signs up as a bugler and Christopher Wiseman
joins the navy. Tolkien however, faces a
dilemma.
[Simon Stacey] Tolkien was in a difficult
position when war broke out; he had a year
of his degree at Oxford to run and Tolkien
needed a degree badly because he wanted to
pursue an academic career; he didn't have
any money in his family unlike Gilson and
therefore, having committed three years to
the degree it was very important that he
completed it. So he discovered a scheme
whereby he could undergo some training
in the Officer Training Core whilst
completing his degree, which he did triumphantly
with a first at Oxford.
[VO] He follows good friend, G.B.Smith, into
the Lancashire Fusiliers in the hope of being
posted to the same battalion.
[John Garth] Tolkien was looking for something
in the army through which he could use his
particular talents, and his particular talents
were languages and writing systems; he was
fascinated by codes and so forth. So it was
only natural that he would train up as a
signaller.
[Paul Golightly] It would have meant that
Tolkien was exposed to the technology
available at the time and it must have
interested him; so the use of the radio, the
use of signals, of semaphore.
[Simon Stacey] He learnt morse code,
he learnt how to use signalling lamps, field
telephones; which of course went on largely
to be ineffective or not to work.
[John Garth] He became Battalion Signalling
Officer for his Battalion. Tolkien had to
oversee the communications of a Battalion
of between 600 and 1,000 men depending on
manpower at the time.
[Paul Golightly] His basic job of course
was to act as a link between the various
layers of command, and that he would be
responsible for incoming orders and making sure
that the right people got those and of course
he'd be responsible for telling command further
up the line about the situation on his sector.
[John Garth] So he was an absolute lynch pin
in a war which depended absolutely on how
much information you had about your enemies
position.
[VO] In March of 1916 as his training nears
its completion, both Tolkien and Edith
become aware that he will soon be sent to
the Front. They marry and just over two
months later, Tolkien is shipped off to France.
The two of them part, not knowing if they
will ever see each other again.
(Loud battle sounds, Guns Firing, Shouting)
(ominous music)
[VO] When Tolkien arrives at the Front, the
War has been raging for almost two years.
The cost of the War is clear;
the countryside is scarred and the casualties
high.
After a virtual stalemate of trench warfare
throughout 1915, and with a new wave of
thousands of freshly trained recruits, it is
clear the Big Push is imminent.
(marching feet)
Tolkien's Battalion remains in reserve, but
he fears for the lives of his old school
friends who are at the Front.
Within a month of his arrival in France
the Allies launch the Somme Offensive.
At 7.30am, on Saturday 1st of July,
the troops in the British Frontline,
go over the top.
(whistle sound echoes)
On the first day of the Offensive alone,
20,000 men are killed, 35,000 are wounded
and over 2,000 are reported missing.
[Paul Golightly] The first casualty was
the plan. It started to fall apart very
rapidly. Tragically for the men caught out
in the open, it was a death sentence. 1 in 5
men who went into combat on the 1st of July
was killed.
[John Garth] It was the most disastrous day
in the history of the British Army, and
a tragedy for the entire country. There were
villages that had lost all their young men.
[Paul Golightly] It's marked as a loss of
innocence, that the 20,000 that were killed
represent a turning point in British
consciousness and the relationship perhaps
between those who make decisions and those
who are forced to carry them out.
(soft piano music)
[VO] Among the many men that are lost on that
day, is dear friend and TCBS member,
Robert Gilson.
[John Garth] He led his Platoon over the top
took charge of his Company, but was shot
in the middle of No Man's Land.
[Paul Golightly] He was in the fourth wave.
He saw the first wave go in and fail,
the second wave go in and fail,
the third wave go in and fail.
And he, as a part of the fourth wave, had
to go in; and they still went. And that
I think is the most poignant and probably
the most tragic thing about the 1st of July
1916. That this generation, had so much faith
in their superiors, probably had so much
commitment to their fellows that they were
prepared to go, even though it meant certain
death.
[John Garth] Tolkien heard about this
after his first action on the Somme a couple
of weeks later; and he was devastated.
It shook him to the foundations of his
beliefs. He had, as all of the members of
the TCBS had, built up their group