Tag Archives: King Edward’s School

The mood music of G.B. Smith, T.C.B.S.

Posted on 14 May 2023 by Allan Turner

In a guest post, Allan Turner, Tolkien scholar and formerly Lecturer in English at the University of Jena, Germany, provides a musical insight into A Spring Harvest, the 1918 anthology of Geoffrey Bache Smith’s poetry co-edited by his friend J.R.R, … Continue reading →

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Making an ass of yourself, with Geoffrey Bache Smith

Posted on 24 March 2023 by John Garth

I’ve just returned from the first-ever conference focusing on Geoffrey Bache Smith, his poetry, and his influence on his great friend, Tolkien. In a previous post, I spotlighted an under-appreciated aspect of Smith: his sense of humour. In this new … Continue reading →

Posted in John Garth’s writing, Research tangents | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The dream of Geoffrey Bache Smith

Posted on 18 October 2021 by John Garth

It’s not often you stumble upon a piece of writing by a key member of Tolkien’s school circle, the T.C.B.S. Today I am pleased as Punch to be able to present such a piece by G.B. Smith, to mark his … Continue reading →

Posted in Research tangents, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Testing time for Tolkien, the Inklings and the T.C.B.S.

Posted on 12 June 2021 by John Garth

Even after 30-odd years it still happens. I’m in the middle of dusty nowhere trying to lug a broken television set across Spain, or I’m arguing with some bureaucrat who won’t let me get going, or I’m hopelessly lost in … Continue reading →

Posted in Research tangents, Tolkien’s creative spirit | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Robert Quilter Gilson, TCBS – a documentary

Posted on 11 May 2016 by John Garth

When Tolkien writes in the Foreword to The Lord of the Rings that ‘by 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead’, he is referring to his friends in a clique formed at school but later bonded by … Continue reading →

Posted in Research tangents, Tolkien in the First World War | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Tolkien’s ‘immortal four’ meet for the last time

Posted on 25 September 2015 by John Garth

Best Article, Tolkien Society Awards 2016 Also available in Spanish and Portuguese. One hundred years ago today, four young men convened in an English town, not having seen each other for some time. What makes this trivial event significant is … Continue reading →

Posted in Research tangents, Tolkien in the First World War | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 23 Comments

A friend of Tolkien’s TCBS tells a neglected truth of war

Posted on 25 May 2015 by John Garth

The official death figures for the First World War, though incomprehensibly vast in themselves, fall well short of the full tally of fatalities, and give the barest indication of the suffering of soldiers and their loved ones. Today that is … Continue reading →

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Secrets of The Hydra: how Tolkien research uncovered lost Wilfred Owen magazines

Posted on 17 June 2014 by John Garth

Historic missing issues of a magazine edited by First World War poet Wilfred Owen have been found and donated to archives in Oxford, in a move hailed as ‘a stunning discovery’. When copies also went to an Edinburgh university, it … Continue reading →

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Tolkien at fifteen, a warrior-to-be

Posted on 5 March 2014 by John Garth

A newly discovered photograph reveals J.R.R. Tolkien at fifteen in his school’s new cadet corps—launched in 1907 as nations geared up for war. Tolkien is one of some 120 unnamed figures in the picture, unearthed by the history department at … Continue reading →

Posted in 100 years of Middle-earth, Tolkien in the First World War | Tagged , , | 39 Comments