World War I, also known as the First World War, The Great War, and War to End All Wars, was a world-wide conflict lasting from 1914 to 1918 between the "Allied Powers" of a dozen European countries and "Central Powers" of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria.
Significance
J.R.R. Tolkien served in the Western Front of World War I, as a commissioned officer with the rank of Second Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers of the British Army. He developed esteem as one of their best signalers.
Tolkien was profoundly influenced by his experiences in it, particularly the Battle of the Somme. Many of his ideas for the battles in Middle-earth are thought to have stemmed from it.
J.R.R. Tolkien's involvement in the war is most closely documented in John Garth's Tolkien and the Great War (2003). Its influence on and relations to his legendarium are the focus of Janet Brennan Croft's War and the Works of J.R.R. Tolkien (2004) and essay collection "Something Has Gone Crack": New Perspectives on J.R.R. Tolkien in the Great War (2019). The 2014 documentary War of Words: Soldier-Poets of the Somme includes a section on Tolkien.
Relations of Tolkien who served
Of the Tea Club, Barrovian Society
- J.R.R. Tolkien, in the 11th Lancashire Fusiliers
- Christopher Wiseman, in the Royal Navy
- Robert Gilson†, in the Cambridgeshire Battalions
- Geoffrey Bache Smith†, in the 3rd Salford Pals
- T.K. Barnsley†, in the Coldstream Guards
- Ralph Payton†
Others
- C.S. Lewis, in the 3rd Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry
- Hilary Tolkien, a bugler in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- Hugo Dyson
