More details on Tolkien’s election to the General Board of the Faculties, Oxford

Christina Scull and Wayne Hammond tell us in the expanded edition of their Chronology that on June 21, 1929 Tolkien was “elected to represent the Faculties of Theology, Law, Literae Humaniores, Modern History, English Language and Literature, Medieval and Modern European Languages and Literature [other than English], and Oriental languages on the General Board for three years until Michaelmas Term 1932” [1].

I’d like to add a little information to this. I have no doubt that Wayne and Christina know all this already but simply omitted these details in consideration of the space required versus the value of the information. As I have no such limitations, I’ll give you all a little bit more. Whether you find it useful or interesting, let me know. :)

Nominations were to be signed and dated and received before 3 PM on Saturday, June 15, by the Secretary of Faculties at the University Registry in the Clarendon Building, Broad Street, just across from the Bodleian Library and cattycorner from the excellent public house, the King’s Arms.

Nominations by at least six electors were required. Tolkien was one of two nominees for this post who met this initial bar. The other was Austin Lane Poole, M.A., Fellow of St. John’s College. [2] Poole would go on to publish the third volume in the Oxford History of England, From Domesday Book to Magna Carta, 1087–1216, in 1956, as well as critical editions of poetry by Thomas Gray. Poole seems to have been genetically predisposed to academia — the son of Reginald Lane Poole, archivist at the University of Oxford; the nephew of Stanley Lane Poole, professor of Arabic at Trinity College, Dublin; and the great-nephew of Reginald Stuart Poole, professor of archaeology at Cambridge.

By June 12, Poole had six nominators: G.N. Clark, Oriel; W.D. Ross, Oriel; E.A. Lowe, Corpus Christi; R. Coupland, All Souls; A.S. Owen, Keble; and J.W.C. Wand, Oriel.

Tolkien had six nominators at this time as well — and here, I’ll add just a little more context for each, where I can (these additional details are mainly from the Chronology):

• Sir M.E. Sadler, M.A., Master of University College: Tolkien had known Michael Sadler since his time at Leeds, where Sadler was Vice-Chancellor. In 1922, he played Father Christmas at a party for the children of Leeds staff where he got stuck in the chimney, no doubt to the immense amusement of the children. Sadler was also, like Tolkien, active with the British Esperanto Congress.
• F. de Zulueta, D.C.L., Fellow of All Souls College: Francis de Zulueta and Helen Buckhurst were the godparents to Tolkien’s daughter, Priscilla. De Zulueta also has an entry dedicated to him in Scull and Hammond’s Reader’s Guide, where you can read more.
• A.D. Lindsay, M.A., Master of Balliol College: Along with Sadler and Tolkien, Lindsay attended the British Esperanto Congress.
• H.C.K. Wyld, B.Litt., M.A., Fellow of Merton College: Wyld was a good deal older than Tolkien. He was the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature before Tolkien and nominated Tolkien to succeed him. Tolkien’s own student, Norman Davis, would succeed him. Wyld was one of Tolkien’s undergraduate examiners at Exeter in 1915. About a decade later, he and Tolkien would both be external examiners for the English Honor School. Like de Zulueta, Wyld has an entry in Scull and Hammond’s Reader’s Guide.
• A.E.W. Hazel, B.C.L., M.A., Principal of Jesus College
• Sir John C. Miles, B.C.L., M.A., Fellow of Merton College

Voting took place in the Convocation House from 12:45 PM to 1:15 PM and from 1:45 PM to 2:10 PM on June 21, 1929. By this time, Tolkien had attracted additional nominations, while Poole still only had six. Tolkien added R.R. Marett, Exeter, whom Tolkien had known since his undergraduate days; Dorothy Everett, M.G. Skipworth, and C.M. Chilcott, all of Lady Margaret Hall; G.E.K. Braunholtz, Worcester College, another Esperantist; C.J. Fordyce, Jesus College; John Fraser, Jesus College; J.A. Smith, Magdalen College; and the eminent C.T. Onions, Magdalen College (there’s an entry on him in the Reader’s Guide too). Sadler does not appear on the final list of nominations, strangely enough. [3]

Beginning to look a little lopsided, eh? The final results were 16 for Tolkien, 11 for Poole, which is a little closer than one might have expected based on the nominations. [4]

[1] Scull, Christina and Wayne G. Hammond. The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Chronology. Rev. and exp. ed. HarperCollins, 2017, p. 160.

[2] Oxford University Gazette. Vol. LIX, No. 1908 (June 12, 1929), p. 662.

[3] Oxford University Gazette. Vol. LIX, No. 1909 (June 19, 1929), p. 703.

[4] Oxford University Gazette. Vol. LIX, No. 1910 (June 26, 1929), p. 723.

 

A newly discovered primary account of Arthur Tolkien’s death

Bloemfontein was a rough place to be on the late 19th century. In addition to the Boer Wars, the climate was a difficult adjustment for Europeans, and disease was rampant. The infant J.R.R. Tolkien and his mother were both ill-stuited to South Africa and often sick, hence, they had returned to England rather than stay on. On October 12, 1899, the bishop of the Anglican Diocese of the Free State, known then as the Diocese of Bloemfontein, Wale Hicks died in office, leaving the bishopric sede vacante until the appointment of Arthur Chandler in 1902.

Before his own death, Bishop Hicks commented on at least three other notable British deaths among his flock in Bloemfontein. First, Alfred Bracebridge Stanford, Vicar of Mafeking (now called Mahikeng), of dysentery late in 1895. Then:

We have had two further losses since. William Walter Powell, a master in St. Andrew’s College, and a candidate for Holy Orders, a young man of considerable promise, died of typhoid fever on January 10. He was a licensed reader, and had given his spare time and energy to helping in church work in various ways with a very simple and unaffected devotion. [1]

And then, he goes on to relate the death of J.R.R. Tolkien’s father:

And now on the 15th inst. [instante mense, i.e., of the current month, i.e., when the bishrop was writing this piece in February, 1896] we have lost one of our good, devoted business men, Arthur Tolkien, who was treasurer of our Diocesan Finance Board. I had hoped to propose him as a member of the Society (S.P.G.) before now. [2]

Arthur Tolkien died of severe bleeding and rheumatic fever, according to an obituary reprinted in The Tolkien Family Album [3]. We get here a picture of Arthur actively involved in church activities and in the promulgation of Christianity to distant parts of the globe, in a church of the Anglican denomination. Scull and Hammond note in their Chronology that Arthur was buried in an Anglican cemetery [4]. Indeed, it seems that Arthur and his new bride Mabel were in fact Anglican, however much we associate J.R.R. Tolkien with his profound Catholic faith. After Arthur’s death and Mabel’s permanent return to England with her two sons, she and her sister converted to Roman Catholicism in June 1900, a conversion which apparently infuriated both the Tolkiens, referred to as Baptists, and the Suffields, who were Methodist/Unitarian. [5] Arthur was also the treasurer of the Diocesan Finance Board, just as he had been treasurer for the Old Edwardians Club, as I have previously documented.

[1] “Varied Needs in Bloemfontein Diocese: A General Review of the Work by the Bishop.” The Mission Field: A Monthly Record of the Proceedings of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at Home and Abroad. Volume XLI (1896). May 1, 1896. G. Bell & Sons, p. 180.

[2] loc. cit. By S.P.G., Hicks is referring to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, a missionary organization founded in 1701 by royal charter of King William III, and the publisher of the mission field notes being quoted here.

[3] Tolkien, John and Priscilla. The Tolkien Family Album. Houghton Mifflin, 1992, p. 19. Other accounts disagree and say it was typhoid fever; see Chronology, p. 818.

[4] Scull, Christina and Wayne G. Hammond. The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide: Chronology. Rev. and exp. ed. HarperCollins, 2017, p. 5.

[5] Priestman, Judith, ed. Tolkien: Life and Legend. Bodleian Library, Oxford. 1992, p. 12.

Like father like son

 The Old Edwardians were “a society of former students (‘old boys’) of King Edward’s School, Birmingham” in which J.R.R. Tolkien participated during his undergraduate years at Exeter College, Oxford. He attended Old Edwardian meetings and played in at least one rugby match on the side of the “Old Boys” versus the youngsters still attending King Edward’s School. This much you know already, I expect.

While there have been former Edwardians since the school was founded in 1552, the Old Edwardians Club, as such, was not established until 1883, and was formed primarily as “a football club, as that was the sport in which the School had traditionally excelled, and one which many of the ‘Old Boys’ still indulge in” [1]. Tolkien himself was a solid rugby player, a bit lighter than the usual weight, but he made up for it with “ferocity” [2].

Well, like father, like son, as it turns out. Arthur Reuel Tolkien also attended King Edward’s School, and he too was active in the Old Edwardians after he left. An 1885 issue of the King Edward’s School Chronicle records a cricket match between the Old Boys and the King Edward’s School team on June 15, ending in the victory of the youngsters by “7 wickets and 4 runs”. Tolkien is listed as scoring no runs or wickets or whatever, and bowling to or being bowled to by — no, I really don’t under cricket, so these scorecards are pretty mystifying to me — a KES student called Arblaster. [3]

A few pages later, as in most issues, comes the summary of the Birmingham Old Edwardians Club, broken down into sections. The first of these is the Lawn Tennis Section — other sections included Gymnastics, Football (i.e., Rugby), and Literary and Debating — which was new to the Club, and for which Arthur Tolkien was elected to the post of Treasurer, quite appropriate for a future bank manager:

In spite of the predictions of evil prophets, this section has made a start, and we see no reason why it should not be one of the most successful sections of the Club.

                A ground has been secured for the season at Bournbrook, near the terminus of the Bristol Road tramway, and a dressing room taken in the Bournbrook Hotel. Play commenced on Saturday, May 9th, and has been continued every fine evening since then. There is room for four courts, and the necessary nets and balls have been provided, so that any member who goes up may be quite sure of a game. The Club has the exclusive use of the ground, which is always open; the nets being kept at the Bournbrook Hotel. The subscription (10/6) is a ridiculously small one for a Lawn Tennis Club. The subscription for University members if 7/6. Members have the privilege of taking up friends to play. A Lawn Tennis Tournament has been arranged to be played in a few weeks. The Rev. J. Hunter Smith has been elected President, G.A. Nutt, Vice-President, A.R. Tolkien, Treasurer, and C.E.P. Gabriel, Secretary. As the section is now fairly started, the Committee hope that the members of the Old Edwardians Club will largely support it, especially as it is the only athletic section which meets during the summer months. [4]

Bournbrook is an industrial and residential district in southwest Birmingham. Here’s an ordnance survey map of the area from 1882–1903, which covers the time in question. I’ve circled the area I think is being described. Today, this area comprises tennis courts and sports pitches for the University of Birmingham, just south of “Old Joe”, the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower, and the Elgar Concert Hall, named for the quintessentially English composer Edward Elgar, who was playing violin in Birmingham in 1885 in William Stockley’s Orchestra.

Like his son, Arthur Tolkien’s involvement in the Old Edwardians wasn’t strictly limited to sporting. On January 17, 1885, he delivered a speech as part of the Literary and Debating Section. A propos of the professional life he would soon be embarking on, Arthur advocated in “a carefully prepared speech” “[t]hat Free Trade under all circumstances was the best policy for England”, in response to which:

We cannot help thinking that, with the exception of the Mover [Arthur Tolkien] and perhaps one other Speaker, no one had thoroughly gone into the subject, and, in fact, one Speaker was apparently so confused in his own mind as to the question under discussion that, after making a most stirring speech against the motion, he voted for in on the plea that his convictions had always been in favor of Free Trade” [5].

In 1885, Arthur Tolkien would have just turned 28 years old — still 27 at the time of his debating club speech. He was three years away from becoming engaged to Mabel Suffield, and four years from his emigration to South Africa to work for the Bank of Africa. Another year, and he would be made manager of the Bloemfontein branch, and one more before Mabel traveled to South Africa to join him. They married on April 16, 1891, Mabel was pregnant more or less immediately, and they welcomed their first son, John Ronald Reuel, the following January.

Arthur’s involvement in the Old Edwardians Club — trivial, maybe; though perhaps not, if it’s fruitful to observe any likeness between father and son, even a son who scarcely knew his father — isn’t in Scull and Hammond’s Chronology, but if it were, these would be among the earliest entries. I don’t find any mention of this in their Reader’s Guide either. The issues of the King Edward’s School Chronicle I’m quoting here also contain short pieces on magic, etymology, and the Nibelungenlied, which I have to imagine would have tickled Tolkien’s fancy if he ever read these issues. Did he? Was he even aware he was following in his father’s footsteps? One wonders, indeed. 

[1] “The Old Edwardians’ Club.” King Edward’s School Chronicle, New Series. Vol. III, No. 23, October 1883, p. 89–90.

[2] Letters, #16, October 3, 1937 to Michael Tolkien, who was going out for his school rugby team.

[3] King Edward’s School Chronicle, New Series. Vol. IV, No. 33, July 1885, p. 115.

[4] ibid., p. 117.

[5] King Edward’s School Chronicle, New Series. Vol. IV, No. 30, February 1885, p. 59–60.