Tolkien and the Great War (Lancashire Fusiliers)
Mar 18, 2013 12:07:42 GMT
Post by Spitfire on Mar 18, 2013 12:07:42 GMT
SWARM members might be interested in this book, Tolkien and the Great War (HarperCollins 2003), which intertwines a couple of stories about the Lancashire Fusiliers.
JRR Tolkien himself was trained in the 13th (Reserve) Battalion, fought and acted as signals officer in the 11th (Service) Battalion on the Somme, and did home service in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion and again the 13th.
Tolkien's friend, Geoffrey Bache Smith, who was in the 19th Lancashire Fusiliers (3rd Salford Pals) was an intelligence officer on the first day of the Somme, and later adjutant when it was converted to a pioneering battalion. Smith features very prominently in the book as one of Tolkien's four-strong clique from school. The author traces each of their military careers using War Office records and private papers including the fascinating and very moving letters between Smith, Tolkien and the other two in the clique. Smith was a promising poet before the Somme, and also wrote "war poems" while there. He said he was "a wild and wholehearted admirer" of Tolkien's mythology, which was in its beginnings at the same time. In fact the clique were the first ever "Middle-earth" fans. Smith was killed by a stray shell while organising a football match a few miles behind the lines on 3 December 1916, after the battle proper had finished. Tolkien co-edited his poetry as "A Spring Harvest", published in 1918.
More details here, if you're interested:
www.johngarth.co.uk/php/tolkien_and_the_great_war.php
JRR Tolkien himself was trained in the 13th (Reserve) Battalion, fought and acted as signals officer in the 11th (Service) Battalion on the Somme, and did home service in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion and again the 13th.
Tolkien's friend, Geoffrey Bache Smith, who was in the 19th Lancashire Fusiliers (3rd Salford Pals) was an intelligence officer on the first day of the Somme, and later adjutant when it was converted to a pioneering battalion. Smith features very prominently in the book as one of Tolkien's four-strong clique from school. The author traces each of their military careers using War Office records and private papers including the fascinating and very moving letters between Smith, Tolkien and the other two in the clique. Smith was a promising poet before the Somme, and also wrote "war poems" while there. He said he was "a wild and wholehearted admirer" of Tolkien's mythology, which was in its beginnings at the same time. In fact the clique were the first ever "Middle-earth" fans. Smith was killed by a stray shell while organising a football match a few miles behind the lines on 3 December 1916, after the battle proper had finished. Tolkien co-edited his poetry as "A Spring Harvest", published in 1918.
More details here, if you're interested:
www.johngarth.co.uk/php/tolkien_and_the_great_war.php