dash, and is a good dribble. He has done much good individual work, especially in breaking away from the scrum to assist the three-quarters. His tackling is always reliable, and he follows up hard. Has been a most capable and energetic Secretary. Captain of Measures’’ (n.s. 26, no. 187 (June 1911), p. 49). In addition to the games played against teams from other schools or colleges Ronald has also played in inter-house football matches: these are not reported in the Chronicle but in 1910–11 Measures’ House played six games as well as a play-off when it tied with another house.
31 March 1911 Six short papers are presented by students at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society. These include one by Christopher Wiseman on the Birmingham printer John Baskerville; a paper by Sidney Barrowclough (in absentia) on Birmingham historian William Hutton; and one by R.S. Payton on the writer Walter White.
4 April 1911 Ronald takes part in the annual Open Debate. The motion is: ‘That the works attributed to William Shakespeare were written by Francis Bacon.’ He speaks in favour, pouring
a sudden flood of unqualified abuse upon Shakespeare, upon his filthy birthplace, his squalid surroundings and his sordid character. He declared that to believe that so great a genius arose in such circumstances commits us to the belief that a fair-haired European infant could have a woolly-haired prognathous Papuan parent. After adducing a mass of further detail in support of the Hon. Opener, he gave a sketch of Bacon’s life and the manner in which it fitted into the production of the plays, and concluded with another string of epithets.
Among other speakers, Rob Gilson is ‘astonished that the firmly established tradition which had satisfied English people for close on 300 years should now be set so lightly aside. Never indeed had any secret been so well kept as that of Bacon’s if his was the authorship’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 26, no. 187 (June 1911), pp. 43, 44). T.K. Barnsley speaks in opposition to Ronald; W.H. Payton argues that the author of Shakespeare’s plays was a lawyer; Christopher Wiseman scarcely believes in Shakespeare but does not think it proved that Bacon wrote his plays; and Rob Gilson likewise argues eloquently in the negative. The motion fails, 37 votes to 52. As Debating Society Secretary Ronald thanks R.W. Reynolds, the Vice President, for all that he has done for the Society.
27 April 1911 Christopher Wiseman writes to Ronald (addressing him as ‘Gabriel’, one of his nicknames) after hearing that he has been appointed Librarian at King Edward’s School. Wiseman will be a Sub-Librarian, and intends to ask their friend Vincent Trought to become one too.
Summer term 1911 Much of this term is taken up by examinations spread over six weeks. Between the exams the pupils have much spare time, even allowing for revision. Some of the senior boys – Sidney Barrowclough, Rob Gilson, R.S. Payton, W.H. Payton, Ronald Tolkien, Vincent Trought, and Christopher Wiseman – form an unofficial group called the Tea Club. They make tea for themselves in the King Edward’s School library cubby-hole and (against the rules) bring in food. Later and especially during vacation they meet in the Tea Room at Barrow’s Stores in Corporation Street, Birmingham; they have a favourite secluded table between two settles which they name the Railway Carriage, and now call themselves the Barrovian Society after ‘Barrow’s’. The most important members of the ‘T.C.B.S.’ (Tea Club, Barrovian Society), as the group becomes, will be Ronald, Rob Gilson, Christopher Wiseman, and eventually G.B. Smith, who will remain closely associated when other members drift away. – As a member of the Officers Training Corps Ronald takes part in drills and in the House competition for the Drill Cup.
June 1911 Ronald edits the June number of the King Edward’s School Chronicle and writes the editorial. As Debating Society Secretary, he almost certainly writes the report of the meeting of the Society on 4 April that appears in the same number. In an account of the members of the Debating Society Ronald is described as ‘an energetic Secretary who does not consider that his duties excuse him from speaking. Has displayed great zeal in arranging meetings throughout the session and considerable ingenuity in advertising them. He is an eccentric humorist who has made many excellent speeches, at times rather burdened with anacolutha. Made one valiant effort to revive Beowulfic oratory’ (‘Debating Society’, n.s. 26, no. 187 (June 1911), p. 45).
June or July 1911 Ronald writes a poem about King Richard I and the Crusaders, A Fragment of an Epic: Before Jerusalem Richard Makes an End of Speech. See note.
15 June 1911 The annual inspection of the King Edward’s School Officers Training Corps takes place. The cadets exhibit their drilling abilities to Major W.L. Loring. Measures’ House, of which Ronald is a member, comes third out of four in the competition for the House Drill Shield.
21 June 1911 Ronald travels to London as one of eight cadets from the King Edward’s School Officers Training Corps chosen to line the route for the coronation of George V. At about 11.00 a.m. they arrive at Lambeth Park, adjoining Lambeth Palace, where they join other cadets in a camp. The cadets are then free until the evening when all the assembled corps are drilled by the company commander, Major F.M. Ingram of Bradfield College. Ronald will later recall that the year 1911 was ‘the annus mirabilis of sunshine in which there was virtually no rain between April and the end of October, except on the eve and morning of George V’s coronation’ (letter to Michael Tolkien, c. 25 August 1967, Letters, p. 391). See note.
22 June 1911 Reveille is sounded at 4.45 a.m. At about 6.00 a.m. the cadets march along the Albert Embankment by way of Vauxhall Bridge to Constitution Hill adjoining Buckingham Palace. They arrive at about 7.00. The various processions do not leave the Palace until 9.30; in the interim the cadets are able to watch various troops moving into position and to see Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener pass by. The King’s procession sets out at 10.30, but the cadets catch only a glimpse as it travels down the Mall and does not pass in front of them. They then have another long wait until, soon after 2.00 p.m., the procession returns from Westminster Abbey along Constitution Hill immediately in front of the cadets and provides them with ‘a spectacle never to be forgotten’ (‘The Coronation’, King Edward’s School Chronicle n.s. 26, no. 188 (July 1911), p. 60). They are too far away to witness the Royal Family’s appearance on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, and are then marched back to camp.
23 June 1911 The cadets help line the streets for a Royal Progress and are in position near Buckingham Palace soon after 8.00 a.m. At 11.00 a.m. the Royal Family leave the Palace. According to the reporter for the King Edward’s School Chronicle – possibly Ronald Tolkien himself – the procession ‘was even more gorgeous than that of the previous day’. The cadets do not wait for the return of the procession but march back to camp for dinner and then return to Birmingham, arriving at about 10.30 p.m. ‘with the feeling that we had had the experience of our lives’ (‘The Coronation’, July 1911, p. 60).
29 June and 1 July 1911 Ronald attends the King Edward’s School Athletic Sports at the School Grounds. He comes third in the One Mile Open race.
July 1911 Ronald edits the July number of the King Edward’s School Chronicle and writes at least the editorial. – King Edward’s School awards Ronald the Milward Exhibition, worth £50.
July 1911–April 1912 At some time during this period Ronald will present two books to the King Edward’s School library: The Lost Explorers: A Tale of the Trackless Desert by Alexander Macdonald (1906), a novel about the Australian Outback, and Scouting for Buller by Herbert Hayens (1902), a novel about the Boer War. See note.
2 July 1911 Seventy-six cadets from King Edward’s School travel by special train to Windsor Great Park to participate in a review of the Officers Training Corps by King George V.
3 July 1911 547 officers, 17,440 non-commissioned officers and men, 470 horses, and 14 guns take part in a display of ‘manly patriotism’ (The Times, 3 July 1911, p. 7). A longer report in the Times of 4 July waxes eloquent about the event ‘among the ancient oak trees’ of Windsor Great Park ‘in glorious summer foliage’. The massed Corps