Chronology of events in the life of J. R. R. Tolkien
1892 3 January: John Ronald Reuel Tolkien born at Bloemfontein.
1894 Birth of younger brother, Hilary.
1895 Spring: Mabel Tolkien takes the two boys back to England, Arthur Tolkien remaining in South Africa.
1896 February: Arthur Tolkien dies. Summer: Mabel Tolkien rents a cottage at Sarehole Mill, Birmingham. She and the boys remain there for four years.
1900 Mabel Tolkien is received into the Catholic Church. She and the boys move from Sarehole to a house in the Birmingham suburb of Moseley. Ronald begins to attend King Edward’s School.
1901 Mabel and the boys move from Moseley to King’s Heath.
1902 Mabel and the boys leave King’s Heath and move to Oliver Road, Edgbaston. Ronald and Hilary are enrolled at St Philip’s Grammar School.
1903 The boys are removed from St Philip’s. Ronald obtains a scholarship to King Edward’s and returns there in the autumn.
1904 Early in the year Mabel Tolkien is discovered to have diabetes. She spends some weeks in hospital. In the summer she and the boys stay at Rednal. In November she dies, aged thirty-four.
1905 The boys move into their Aunt Beatrice’s house in Stirling Road.
1908 The boys move to Mrs Faulkner’s house in Duchess Road. Ronald meets Edith Bratt.
1909 Autumn: Ronald’s romance with Edith Bratt is discovered by Father Francis Morgan. Ronald fails to obtain a scholarship at Oxford.
1910 January: Ronald and Hilary move to new lodgings. Ronald continues to see Edith Bratt, but is then forbidden to communicate with her. March: Edith leaves Birmingham and moves to Cheltenham. December: Ronald wins an Exhibition at Exeter College, Oxford.
1911 Formation of ‘The T.C.B.S.’ Summer: Ronald leaves school. He visits Switzerland. Autumn: His first term at Oxford. Christmas: He takes part in a perfomance of The Rivals at King Edward’s.
1913 January: Ronald’s twenty-first birthday. He is reunited with Edith Bratt. February: He takes Honour Moderations and is awarded a Second Class. Summer: He begins to read for the Honours School of English Language and Literature. He visits France with a Mexican family.
1914 January: Edith is received into the Catholic Church. She and Ronald are formally betrothed. Summer: Ronald visits Cornwall. At the outbreak of war he determines to return to Oxford and complete his degree course.
1915 Summer: He is awarded First Class Honours in his final examination. After being commissioned in the Lancashire Fusiliers he begins training in Bedford and in Staffordshire.
1916 22 March: He and Edith are married. Edith moves to Great Haywood. June: Tolkien embarks for France. He travels to the Somme as a second lieutenant in the 11th Lancashire Fusiliers, and serves in action as Battalion Signalling Officer until the autumn. November: He returns to England suffering from ‘trench fever’.
1917 January and February: While convalescing at Great Haywood he begins to write ‘The Book of Lost Tales’ which eventually becomes The Silmarillion. Spring: He is posted to Yorkshire, but spends much of the year in hospital. November: Birth of eldest son, John.
1918 Tolkien (now a full lieutenant) is posted to the Humber Garrison and to Staffordshire. In November, after the Armistice, be returns to Oxford with his family and joins the staff of the New English Dictionary.
1919 He begins work as a freelance tutor. He and Edith move to 1 Alfred Street.
1920 He is appointed Reader in English Language at Leeds University, and begins work there in the autumn. Birth of second son, Michael.
1921 Edith and the family join him in Leeds, eventually moving into 11 St Mark’s Terrace.
1922 E. V. Gordon joins the staff at Leeds. He and Tolkien begin work on their edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
1924 Tolkien becomes Professor of English Language at Leeds University. He buys a house in Darnley Road. Birth of third son, Christopher.
1925 The edition of Sir Gawain is published. In the summer Tolkien is elected Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford, and takes up the appointment in the autumn. He buys a house in Northmoor Road, and the family returns to Oxford early in the new year.
1926 Tolkien becomes friends with C. S. Lewis. Formation of ‘The Coalbiters’.
1929 Birth of daughter, Priscilla.
1930 The family moves from 22 to 20 Northmoor Road. At about this time Tolkien begins to write The Hobbit. He abandons it before it is finished.
1936 He lectures on Beowulf: the Monsters and the Critics. The manuscript of The Hobbit is read by Susan Dagnall of Allen & Unwin, and at her suggestion Tolkien finishes the book. It is accepted for publication.
1937 The Hobbit is published in the autumn. At the suggestion of Stanley Unwin, Tolkien begins to write a sequel, which becomes The Lord of the Rings.
1939 Tolkien delivers his lecture On Fairy-Stories at St Andrews University. At the outbreak of war Charles Williams joins the Inklings.
1945 Tolkien is elected Merton Professor of English Language and Literature at Oxford.
1947 The Tolkiens move to Manor Road.
1949 Completion of The Lord of the Rings. Publication of Farmer Giles of Ham.
1950 Tolkien offers The Lord of the Rings to the publishing house of Collins. The family moves from Manor Road to Holywell Street.
1952 The manuscript of The Lord of the Rings is returned by Collins, and Tolkien passes it to Allen & Unwin.
1953 The Tolkiens move to Sandfield Road in the Oxford suburb of Headington.
1954 Publication of the first two volumes of The Lord of the Rings.
1955 Publication of the third volume.
1959 Tolkien retires from his professorship.
1962 Publication of The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.
1964 Publication of Tree and Leaf.
1965 Ace Books issue an unauthorised American edition of The Lord of the Rings. A ‘campus cult’ begins.
1967 Publication of Smith of Wootton Major.
1968 The Tolkiens move to Lakeside Road, Poole (adjacent to the town of Bournemouth).
1971 Edith Tolkien dies in November, aged eighty-two.
1972 Tolkien returns to Oxford, moving into rooms in Merton Street. He is awarded the C.B.E., and Oxford University confers an honorary Doctorate of Letters upon him.
1973 On 28 August he goes to Bournemouth to stay with friends. He is taken ill, and dies in a nursing-home in the early hours of Sunday 2 September, aged eighty-one.
1977 Publication of The Silmarillion, edited by Christopher Tolkien.