Tolkien, John Ronald Reuel (1892-1973), writer and philologist

Born on in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State.

In December 1910 he won an exhibition to Exeter College, Oxford and went up to the University in 1911 to read Classics. In 1913 he achieved a Second and changed to study English. He achieved a First in his finals in 1915.

He served in France during the war including at the Battle of the Somme. In October 1916 he got Trench Fever and returned to England where he remained for the rest of the war.

1920 – appointed reader in English language at the University of Leeds.
1925 – 1945 held the Rawlinson and Bosworth chair of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University and was a Fellow of Pembroke College.
1945 – 1959 was the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College.

Tolkien was a close friend of C. S. Lewis, a co-member of the informal literary discussion group The Inklings.

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.

Amongst his work are The Silmarillion, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography