by John Garth
p.134
Marriage service: Priscilla Tolkien in Angerthas in English 3, 5.
Honeymoon: Biography, 80. The Trumpets of Faërie: Priestman, Life and Legend, 30.
Farnley Park: CLW to JRRT, 14 March 1916. Test results: JRRT provisional instructor’s certificate (Bodleian Tolkien); Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition. Leave: JRRT to Capt. C. A. McAllard, 8 May 1916 (Bodleian Tolkien).
Mrs Kendrick: GBS to JRRT, 26 May 1916.
pp.134-5
Nuptial blessing: Priscilla Tolkien in Angerthas in English 3, P. 5.
p.135
‘Now spring has come…’: GBS, ‘April 1916’, A Spring Harvest, 65. ‘I wish another council…’: GBS to JRRT, 12 January 1916. Odyssey: ibid., 4 March 1916. April Fool’s: ibid., 6 April 1916.
pp.135-6
GBS at Great Haywood: GBS to JRRT, 23, 24, and 26 May 1916. ‘Nothing could be more…’: ibid. [1 June 1916].
p.136
‘There be still some…’: GBS, ‘April 1916’, A Spring Harvest, 65.
School exams, ‘The real days…’: CLW to JRRT, 14 March 1916. ‘oasis’: cited in RQG to JRRT, 22 June 1916.
‘The most magnificent…’: GBS to JRRT [23 July 1915].
p.137
‘world-shaking power’: cited in CLW to JRRT, 16 November 1914.
‘travail underground’: RQG to JRRT, 9 March 1916. ‘I have faith…’: ibid., 21 November 1915. ‘Providence insists…’: GBS to JRRT [13 July 1915].
‘Really you three…’: CLW to JRRT, 4 February 1916.
‘republic’: GBS to JRRT, 12 January 1916.
Embarkation orders: 13th LF adjutant to JRRT, 2 June 1916 (Bodleian Tolkien).
p.138
Plough and Harrow: Family Album, 39. Departure: Biography, 80. ‘Junior officers…’: Cater, The Daily Telegraph, 29 November 2001, 23.
SEVEN Larkspur and Canterbury-bells
From JRRT’s arrival on the Somme until the end of Chapter 10, unless otherwise stated:
JRRT’s movements are derived from his diary.
11th LF activities are drawn from the battalion’s war diary, supplemented by those of the 74th Brigade HQ; 13th Cheshires, 9th Loyal North Lancashires, and 2nd Royal Irish Rifles; the 25th Division and its signal company. Military histories consulted include principally The Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual 1917, 213-34; Latter, Lancashire Fusiliers; Kincaid-Smith, The 25th Division in France and Flanders, 10-22.
Great War soldiers’ experience: especially Winter, Death’s Men, and for the Battle of the Somme itself Keegan, The Face of Battle.
Topography and weather: various sources, notably Gliddon, When the Barrage Lifts.
p.141
Scapa Flow: CLW to Dr Peter Liddle; CLW to JRRT, 4 February 1916. ‘The Snotty…’: ibid., 4 March [1917].
p.142
Jutland: CLW to Dr Peter Liddle (‘No one below decks…’); Arthur J. Marder, From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow, iii. 100; The Battle of Jutland: Official Despatches, 123-5, 365-7.
p.143
Train journey: JRRT diary; 13th LF adjutant to JRRT, 2 June 1916 (Bodleian Tolkien).
Channel crossing: JRRT diary; ‘The Lonely Isle’, Leeds University Verse 1914-1924, 57. Gunship escorts were routine. RQG sketches: RQG to EK, 6 June 1916. Hoy: CLW to Dr Peter Liddle.
pp.143-4
Calais to Étaples: JRRT diary; Biography, 80.
p.144
Lt. W. H. Reynolds: Latter, Lancashire Fusiliers, 124.
‘Habbanan’: LT1, 91. Details of a 25th Division officer’s life at Étaples come from the diary of Capt. Lionel Ferguson of the 13th Cheshires (hereafter ‘Ferguson diary’), who was there at virtually the same time as JRRT. (Contrary to Biography, 81, JRRT did not meet up with his battalion proper until he reached the Somme hinterland.)
pp.144-5
‘The Lonely Isle’: Leeds University Verse 1914-1924, 57. Dedication: LT1, 25.
p.145
‘I do pray for you…’: GBS to JRRT, 9 June 1916.
p.146
Spies; a ‘show’: Ferguson diary. Trench working party: RQG to RCG, 25 June 1916. ‘war was not now…’: RQG on sportsmanship, KESC, March 1910, 5. ‘the war at last…’: RQG to EK, 17 June 1916. ‘I have never felt…’: RQG to JRRT, 22 June 1916. Amiens cathedral: ibid., 7 May 1916. GBS tantalizingly near: RQG to EK, 6 and 8 May 1916. Fear for RQG’s sanity: CLW to JRRT, 1 March 1916; perhaps simply thinking of RQG’s sensitive nature. ‘I feel now as if…’: RQG to EK, 13 June 1916.
p.147
‘When it comes down to…’: ibid., 9 June 1916.
Peace rumour; ‘I often think of the extraordinary…’: RQG to RCG, 25 June 1916. Artillery barrage: Middlebrook, The First Day on the Somme, 87-8.
pp.147-8
Étaples to Rubempré: JRRT diary; Biography, 81. The 11th LF did not travel with JRRT to Rubempré, though a draft of troops may have: the battalion received 248 new men in June.
p.148
Rubempré: Biography, 81; Ferguson diary; Platt papers.
pp.148-9
Provenance of 25th Division soldiers: Latter, Lancashire Fusiliers, 93-4 and vol. ii. 146; Ferguson diary. Loos tradition: Evers memoir.
p.149
Platoon command: available evidence does not reveal whether Tolkien ever ran a platoon, a routine responsibility of many subalterns.
Officer numbers: 25th Division administrative staff war diary. JRRT in ‘A’ Company: mess accounts and other items (Bodleian Tolkien). No officers from 13th LF: Army Book officer lists, 1915-16. ‘were in many cases…’: Biography, 81. ‘the most improper job…’: Letters, 64.
p.150
Rubempré to Warloy-Baillon: 11th LF war diary. ‘My dear John Ronald…’: GBS to JRRT, 25 June 1916. ‘Larkspur and Canterbury-bells…’: RQG to EK, 25 June 1916. Bécourt château (footnote): Murphy, History of the Suffolk Regiment, 154.
p.151
‘One of the few…’: RQG to RCG, 25 June 1916. ‘It is no use harrowing…’: quoted in Lt. P. V. Emrys-Evans to RCG, 13 July 1916.
EIGHT A bitter winnowing
p.152
During the barrage: Middlebrook, The First Day on the Somme, 115-20. Cavalry: Peacock, ‘A Rendezvous with Death’, 317-18, 325. ‘drum-fire’: Ferguson diary. ‘as if Wotan…’: Lewis, Saggitarius Rising, 103.
11th Suffolks on eve of battle: Murphy, The History of the Suffolk Regiment, 154; The First Day on the Somme, 113.
pp.152-3
Walkover; rum: Senescall memoir.
p.153
RQG before battle: Pte. A. Bradnam to RCG, 14 July 1916 and undated [July 1916].
pp.153-5
11th Suffolks, 1 July: war diaries of the battalion, 101st Brigade and 34th Division; Peacock, ‘A Rendezvous with Death’. Stedman, Somme: La Boisselle, 54-7; Murphy, The History of the Suffolk Regiment; Senescall memoir.
p.154
‘dear, stupid, agricultural platoon’: RQG to Estelle King, 9 April 1915.
p.155
‘I am astonished…’: RQG to MCG, undated, 1916. (Cf. Keegan, The Face of Battle, 234-6.)
‘just like corn…’: Jimmy Walton, 11th Suffolks, in Peacock, ‘A Rendezvous with Death’, 344.
‘the most absolute barrier…’: RQG to EK, 5 February 1916.
Order not to assist wounded: 11th Suffolks war diary.
pp.155-6
RQG’s death: Capt. C. L. Morgan to RCG, 12 July 1916 (‘perfectly calmly…’); Pte. A. Bradnam to MCG, 14 July 1916; Major P. F. Morton to RCG, 12 July 1916; Lt. P. V. Emrys-Evans to RCG, 13 July; a wounded company commander (perhaps Major Morton himself) quoted in Murphy, The History of the Suffolk Regiment, Cpl. Ashley Hicks, statement to Red Cross, 8 August 1916. There is a measure of agreement between these accounts.
p.156
RQG dead in trench: Pte. G. Gordon to RCG, 20 July 1916. Other accounts say RQG was the first to be wounded as the 11th Suffolks went over the top (Pte. W. Prentice, statement to the Red Cross, 17 August 1916); that he was hit by gunf
ire as he cut the enemy wire (MCG to Rachel King, 10 July 1916). As late as the fourth week in July, Cpl. H. Spalding reported seeing him alive in England (RQG service record). Gilson household: MCG to RQG, 26 June 1916. He probably never received this letter.
‘I hope I may never…’: RQG to EK, 6 May 1916. ‘in a big affair…’: Lt. P. V. Emrys-Evans to RCG, 13 July 1916. ‘It was the final…’: 2nd Lt. A. R. Wright (later Sir Andrew Wright, governor of Cyprus) to RCG, 18 July 1916.
Only Wright unhurt: Lt. P. V. Emrys-Evans to RCG, 13 July 1916.
p.157
Mass: JRRT diary. Padre averse to Catholics: Evers memoir. Chaplain in Royal Irish Rifles: Ferguson diary.
pp.157-8
Scenes and rumours at Warloy-Baillon and Bouzincourt, 1-4 July: Ferguson diary. Burials: Biography, 82.
p.158
‘German captive-balloons…’: JRRT, ‘Philology: General Works’, in Boas and Herford (eds.), The Year’s Work in English Studies 1924, 51.
34th Division losses: Peacock, ‘A Rendezvous with Death’, 329.
JRRT at Bouzincourt: Biography, 82. ‘the fiery trial’: GBS to JRRT, 9 June 1916; ‘You must expect…’: ibid., 25 June 1916.
‘ordeal’: RQG to JRRT, 22 June 1916.
74th Brigade movements, 5 July: 11th LF war diary; Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual 1917, 214. All four companies of the 11th LF left Bouzincourt (contrary to Biography, 83); as a matter of routine, some men remained behind.
pp.159-60
19th Lancashire Fusiliers, from June to 4 July: war diary, including GBS’s intelligence reports; Stedman, Salford Pals, 93-6, 106-12; Latter, Lancashire Fusiliers, 134-6; Barlow, Salford Brigade, 74-5.
p.159
Intelligence officer: 19th LF war diary. (GBS’s predecessor had lost a hand while instructing a class in bombing; Latter, Lancashire Fusiliers, 120.)
GBS’s location in wood: in his new role he would certainly have been with the commanding officer, Lt.-Col. J. M. A. Graham, who was here; Stedman, Salford Pals, 116.
p.161
GBS at Bouzincourt: perhaps arranging accommodation for his battalion, under the ad hoc personnel arrangements surrounding the battle. He was later official billeting officer (19th LF war diary).
Signal office shelled: 25th Division signal company war diary. 19th LF reorganize: Salford Pals, 113. Bouzincourt reunion: JRRT diary; Biography, 83.
pp.161-2
La Boisselle and Ovillers, 7-10 July: 11th LF war diary; Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual 1917, 215-19. The dead: Ferguson diary.
p.162
Traffic figures: from a 21-22 July census at Fricourt; Taylor, English History 1914-1945, 60.
‘That road was like…’: Carrington, A Subaltern’s War, 36-7.
In eighty pages he describes a journey from Bouzincourt to battle at Ovillers on the same dates and almost exactly the same route as JRRT.
pp.162-4
To La Boisselle, 14 July: 11th LF war diary; Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual 1917, 220; Carrington, A Subaltern’s War, 36-43; Brenan, A Life of One’s Own, 205-7; Evers memoir; Gliddon, When the Barrage Lifts.
p.163
‘Something in the make…’: Masefield, The Old Front Line. ‘like a volcano…’: The Times, July 1916, 9.
pp.164-6
11th LF supports the 7th Brigade, 14-15 July: war diaries of 11th LF, 25th Division HQ, 74th and 7th Brigade HQs, and 8th Loyal North Lancashires and 10th Cheshires (the 7th Brigade battalions that fought alongside Tolkien’s); Latter, Lancashire Fusiliers, 151; Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual 1917, 220-1.
p.164
First aid: Keegan, The Face of Battle, 266.
pp.164-5
La Boisselle and beyond, 14 July: Ferguson diary; Carrington, A Subaltern’s War, 39, 43-4 (‘a new country…’), 56 (the ambulance and the dead), 89.
p.165
JRRT at Ovillers: Biography, 84, asserts that JRRT’s role was confined to signalling. In fact, in the face of high officer casualties, any subaltern faced possibly being put in charge of a platoon.
pp.165-6
Signals: Solano (ed.), Signalling, 11; ‘Summary of training circulars (advisory)’ issued to JRRT (Bodleian Tolkien).
pp.166-8
11th LF in the 74th Brigade attack on Ovillers, 15-17 July: war diaries of the battalion and brigade, the 25th Division HQ and signal company, 13th Cheshires, 144th Brigade, 1/4th Gloucesters and 1/7th Worcesters, and the 143rd Brigade and 1/5th Royal Warwickshires; Kincaid-Smith, The 25th Division in France, 14; Latter, Lancashire Fusiliers, 151-2; Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual 1917, 221-2; ; Miles, Military Operations, 101; Stedman, Somme: La Boisselle, 95.
p.166
‘a treacherous, chaotic region…’: Brenan, A Life of One’s Own, 207 (on travelling to Ovillers via La Boisselle c.20-23 July).
p.167
Bodies and faces: Courtauld, Daily Telegraph, 10 November 1998 (interview with Norman Edwards of the 1/6th Gloucesters, who visited Ovillers on 20 July).
‘The flies were buzzing…’: Carrington, A Subaltern’s War, 106-7.
No enemy shelling: 25th Division signal company diary. Sleep in dugout: JRRT diary. ‘Ours compared…’: Evers memoir. ‘A’ Company order: Bodleian Tolkien.
pp.167-8
1/5th Royal Warwickshires stranded: Carrington, A Subaltern’s War, 87-8, and Soldier from the Wars Returning, 135; Brown, Imperial War Museum Book of the Somme, 138-9.
p.168
‘I am quite well’: GBS to JRRT, 12 July 1916. ‘I am safe but…’: ibid., 15 July 1916.
NINE ‘Something has gone crack’
p.169
Somme offensive widely expected: Brown, The Imperial War Museum Book of the Somme, 260.
Field postcard: RQG to RCG, 30 June 1916. ‘never sends anything…’, etc.: RCG to RQG, 6 July 1916. Gilsons await news: MCG to Rachel King, 11 July 1916.
pp.169-70
Obituary: The Times, 11 July 1916, 8. Gilsons’ grief; ‘greatest friend’: MCG to Rachel King, 11 July 1916.
p.170
‘was loved by all those…’: Capt. A. Seddon to RCG, 3 July 1916. ‘loved by all the men…’: Pte. A. Bradnam to MCG, 14 July 1914. ‘I am almost glad…’: Major P. F. Morton to RCG, 12 July 1916. ‘everything to me…’: 2nd Lt. A. R. Wright to RCG, 18 July 1916.
pp.170-1
Bouzincourt to Beauval, 17-19 July: JRRT diary, including mess accounts listing sums owed to him by the officers against payments made to Harrison, Arden, and Kershaw. Which batman was assigned to JRRT is not known. Officer details: service records of Lt. W. F. Waite and Capt. W. I. Edwards; Fawcett-Barry papers.
p.171
JRRT and batmen: Biography, 81. Letter from Pte. T. Gaskin’s mother: Bodleian Tolkien (reproduced in Priestman, Life and Legend, 35).
Acting lieutenant: The Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual 1917, 222. Ad hoc promotions (not reflected in official papers) accompanying a more responsible job were the norm because of the high casualty rate. (C. E. Munday, 8 November 1916, addresses JRRT as Lieutenant; but a handwritten order from Lt.-Col. L. G. Bird, 7 August 1916, refers to him as Second Lieutenant; Bodleian Tolkien.)
pp.171-2
Signal officer’s staff and duties: 25th Division signal company diary; Solano (ed.), Signalling, 11-12. Signals under scrutiny: ‘Communications in the 25th Division’.
p.172
Attack order found at Ovillers: Macdonald, The Somme, 169-70. Capt. J. C. P. E. Metcalfe: service record; Hayter (ed.), Charlton and Newbottle; the Reverend Roger Bellamy to the author; Quarterly Army List.
pp.172-3
Auchonvillers, 24-30 July: on the front line between Praed Street and Broadway. War diaries of 11th LF, 74th Brigade and 25th Division signal company; The Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual 1917, 222-3.
p.173
Mailly-Maillet, 30 July-5 August: ibid., 223; 11th LF war diary. Order to JRRT: from Lt.-Col. L. G. Bird, 7 August 1916 (Bodleian Tolkien).
Sucrerie trenches, 5-10 August: referred to by JRRT as ‘our
second bout of trenches’, Letters 9; they were between Egg Street and Flag Avenue, and the communication (access) trench was called Cheer’oh (‘goodbye’) Avenue. 11th LF war diary; Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual 1917, 223-4.
Bus-lès-Artois, 10-15 July: JRRT diary; 11th LF war diary; The Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual 1917, 224. Nights in wood: Letters, 9.
pp.173-4
Poem: GBS to JRRT, 25 July 1916, identifies it only as ‘your thing about England’.
p.174
Brief letter from CLW: not extant because JRRT returned it to GBS. An empty envelope from GBS, postmarked 4 August 1916, implies that it was sent with no accompanying note.
‘such a life…’: GBS to JRRT, 11 August 1916.
‘No filter of sentiment…’: quoted in ibid.
‘Save that poetic fire’: GBS, A Spring Harvest, 72. The poem appears above in full.
p.175
‘Blighters’: Sassoon, The War Poems, 68.
‘To the Cultured’: GBS, A Spring Harvest, 72.
‘the entirety…’: quoted in GBS to JRRT, 19 August 1916.
‘the great work’: CLW to JRRT, 4 February 1916. ‘doubting Thomas’: GBS to JRRT, 19 August 1916.
p.176
‘the universal weariness…’, etc.: JRRT to GBS, 12-13 August 1916 (Letters, 10).
Lt. J. Bowyer (footnote): The Lancashire Fusiliers’ Annual 1917, 313.
p.177
‘and I can’t help thinking…’, ‘He will come out…’: CLW to JRRT, 1 March 1916.
‘we shall not see it…’: RQG to JRRT, 31 October 1915.
‘the death of one…’: GBS to JRRT, 3 February 1916.
19th LF at Ovillers, 12-14 July: Latter, Lancashire Fusiliers, 150; war diary. ‘They were lost…’: GBS intelligence report, ibid.
GBS’s duties: ‘Instructions for and duties of Brigade and Battalion Intelligence Officers’ (appendix to 1 July operation orders), 19th LF war diary.
Corpses: ‘Many German dead in trench 8b43 to 8c56’, said a report (25th Division war diary) on 14 July, before the 19th LF vacated it. They had seized half of this 640-yard stretch of trench; 19th LF war diary.
‘I am truly afraid…’: GBS to JRRT, 25 July 1916.
p.178
19th LF, 15 July-13 August: war diary. Conversion: Mitchinson, Pioneer Battalions in the Great War, 65.
