left will be able to continue its work. He ends by saying that if the letter seems incoherent it was ‘due to its being written at different sittings amongst the noise of a very boring Company mess’. He wishes that he could write more but has much to do (now on the 13th, a Sunday): ‘The Bde Sig. Offr. [Brigade Signalling Officer] is after me for a confabulation, and I have two rows to have with the QM [Quartermaster] and a detestable 6.30 parade – 6.30 p.m. of a sunny Sabbath’ (Letters, pp. 9–10).
14 August 1916 Robert Cary Gilson, Head Master of King Edward’s School, replies to a letter of sympathy Tolkien sent to him on the death of his son. Rob Gilson’s will directs that Tolkien should have some of his books or drawings.
15 August 1916 At 10.00 a.m. the 11th Battalion parades and marches to ‘hutments’ in the wood at Acheux-en-Amiénois, arriving at 1.00 p.m. They will remain there, occupied with training and drilling, until 19 August, when they will march to Hédauville and then on to the trenches at Thiepval on 20 August; Tolkien however will be on a signalling course (see below). – Smith writes to Tolkien, not yet having received his letter of 12–13 August. He cannot sleep for memories of Rob Gilson and of the last time he saw him. He thinks that in some ways Rob is to be envied: ‘After all he is out of the great struggle of life, and it often seems that rest and peace are a great boon…. I wish I could find you – I search for you everywhere’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford).
16–23 August 1916 Tolkien attends a course for the Battalion Signalling Officers in the 25th Division. The rest of the 11th Battalion is involved in other activities. Tolkien will note in his diary that he slept in the wood at Acheux on the nights of 15 to 17 August, at battalion headquarters at Acheux on 18 August, and at ‘billet 89 Acheux’ from 19 to 23 August.
19–22 August 1916 Smith writes to Tolkien on 19 August that he received his long letter (of 12–13 August) the day before and disagrees with much of it:
The idea that the T.C.B.S. has stopped is for me entirely impossible…. The T.C.B.S. is not so much a society as an influence on the state of being. I never for two consecutive seconds believed in the four-idealfriends theory except in its very widest sense as a highly important and very worthy communion of living souls. That such an influence on the state of being could come to an end with Rob’s loss is to me a preposterous idea…. The T.C.B.S. is not finished and never will be.
He returns Tolkien’s letter with ‘some rather curt and perhaps rude comments’. He had hoped to see Tolkien on 19 August as both Tolkien’s battalion and Smith’s are in Hédauville, but found that Tolkien was away on a course; but they are sure to meet soon, and ‘I am not quite sure whether I shall shake you by the hand or take you by the throat, so enormously do I disagree with your letter and agree with myself!’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). In fact he sees Tolkien later that day, and again each day on 20, 21, and 22 August.
22 August 1916 Tolkien, Smith, and H.T. Wade-Gery have dinner at Bouzincourt, and are shelled while eating. This is the last time that Tolkien will see G.B. Smith. Possibly on this date, Wade-Gery presents to Tolkien a copy of The Earthly Paradise by William Morris, vol. 5 of the Collected Works edited by Morris’s daughter May.
23 August 1916 The signalling course ends.
24 August 1916 Tolkien leaves Acheux, travels by way of Hédauville, and rejoins his battalion who are occupying trenches at the edge of a wood near Thiepval, a German stronghold and the focus of an Allied assault.
24–26 August 1916 The 11th Battalion spends most of this time constructing new trenches while other units take a more active role, but even so there are casualties due to shelling. – Tolkien writes two poems. He dates the manuscript of the first, The Thatch of Poppies, to ‘Acheux Hédauville Thiepval Aug[ust] 24–25 1916’. He dedicates the second, The Forest Walker, ‘To Buslès-Artois Wood’, and in it obliquely refers to his feelings when he had gone to that wood on 10 and 11 August to think about Rob Gilson’s death. He will later write on one manuscript of The Forest Walker: ‘HQ [headquarters] dugout Thiepval Wood Aug[ust] 25–26’. He will note in his diary having slept in a dugout at Thiepval on the nights of 24 and 25 August.
26–27 August 1916 From about 5.00 to 10.45 p.m. on 26 August the 11th Battalion is relieved by the 1/5 West Yorkshire Regiment, under shelling. The battalion marches to Bouzincourt, arriving at about 1.00 a.m. on 27 August. The men rest and clean up.
28–31 August 1916 At 4.00 a.m. on 28 August the 11th Battalion parades and marches to relieve the 4th Royal Berkshire and 5th Gloucester Regiments in trenches north of Ovillers, near the Leipzig Salient. The battalion works day and night to repair and strengthen the trenches, ankle-deep in water, hindered by heavy rain and shelling. Although the Battalion diary will describe each of these days as ‘quiet’, five men are killed and thirty wounded. Tolkien as Battalion Signalling Officer helps to install, or supervises the installation of, a new system of cables connecting the front line with Brigade headquarters. He will note in his diary that he spent the night of 28 August in ‘Specialist mess 88’, and the nights of 29 to 31 August at Ovillers-La-Boisselle. – Close to the trenches is Authuille Wood, described by John Masefield as ‘a romantic and very lovely wood, pleasant with the noise of water. But at its north-eastern end it runs out in a straggling spinney along the Leipzig’s east flank . . Here the enemy fearing for his safety kept up a terrible barrage. The trees are burnt, ragged, unbarked, topped and cut off short, the trenches are blown in and jumbled, and the ground blasted and gouged’ (The Old Front Line (1917), p. 65).
1–5 September 1916 On 1 September the 11th Battalion leaves the front line, exchanging places with the 9th Loyal North Lancashires who have been in support. The 11th Battalion spends the next few days cleaning up the relief trenches, but also sends working parties to the front line and communications trenches to aid the Royal Engineers. Tolkien is probably involved with the laying of more cables between each battalion and Brigade headquarters. He will note in his diary that he spent the nights of 1 to 5 September at Ovillers-La-Boisselle.
6 September 1916 The 11th Battalion is relieved by the 6th South Staffordshires and marches to bivouacs 500 yards east of Bouzincourt. See note. The men spend the day cleaning and reorganizing. Probably at about this time a letter written on 25 August by the mother of Thomas Gaskin, asking for information about the death of her son, is passed to Tolkien for reply. See note.
7–12 September 1916 The men of the 11th Battalion proceed in stages to Franqueville for a long training session. They are carefully ordered to march, on their way from Bouzincourt, through the southern outskirts of Beauquesne, not through the centre; that four companies, each with its signallers, Lewis Gun teams, and bombers will leave at five-minute intervals, followed by transport, with the first company leaving at 8.20 a.m.; that at 8.00 a.m. the battalion’s second in command will inspect the billets they are leaving to be sure they are perfectly clean; that all officers’ kits and company stores are to be at the quartermaster’s stores no later than 6.00 a.m., with officers’ servants in attendance; and that care is to be taken when observing the regulation halt of ten minutes each hour, to prevent closing up of the column. The battalion reaches Léalvillers on 7 September (Tolkien spends the night in a billet), Puchevillers on the 8th (Tolkien sleeps two nights in a bivouac; 9 September is spent in drilling and reorganizing), Beauval on the 10th, Candas on the 11th, and Franqueville on the 12th. Tolkien will note in his diary that he spent the nights of 10, 11, and 12 September in billets.
10 September 1916 Smith writes to Tolkien, asking him to send a field postcard telling how he is. He has heard from R.W. Reynolds but has had nothing from Wiseman for ages. – Tolkien will note in his diary that he attended Mass this day, presumably at Beauval.
13–24 September 1916 In Franqueville the 11th Battalion, with the rest of the 74th Brigade, spends time with drills, parades, and inspections, and in physical, company, and specialist training. On 17 September the men are given a demonstration of drill and guard mounting by staff of the 4th Army School. On 22 September there is a battalion