Christina Scull - The J. R. R. Tolkien Companion and Guide - Volume 1 - Chronology

22 October 1910Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match at Denstone, Staffordshire, against Denstone College. King Edward’s School wins, 17 to 13. The King Edward’s School Chronicle will report that ‘Tolkien played a characteristic dashing game’ (‘Football’, n.s. 26, no. 183 (November 1910), p. 83).

25 October 1910Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against Jesus College, Oxford. King Edward’s School loses, 5 to 6.

28 October 1910King Edward’s School sudent F. Scopes reads a paper on Matthew Arnold as a poet at a meeting of the Literary Society.

29 October 1910Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against Oakham School. King Edward’s School wins, 9 to 8.

November 1910As Debating Society Secretary, Ronald almost certainly writes the report of the meetings of the Society on 7 and 21 October published in the King Edward’s School Chronicle for November 1910. As Football Secretary, he possibly also writes the report of matches published in the same number.

1 November 1910Ronald plays in a 1st XV away match against The Leys School, Cambridge. King Edward’s School loses, 0 to 6. After the match, Ronald, Christopher Wiseman, and another player receive their first team colours.

4 November 1910The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘This House deplores the occurrence of the Norman Conquest.’ It will be reported in the King Edward’s School Chronicle that

in a speech attempting to return to something of Saxon purity of diction, (‘right English goodliness of speechcraft’?) [Ronald] deplored before ‘the worshipful fellows of the speechguild,’ the influx of polysyllabic barbarities which ousted the more honest if humbler native words. He finally appealed to the House’s sentiment, recalling the deaths of Harold and Hereward, but lapsed regrettably in his enthusiasm into such outlandish horrors as ‘famous’ and ‘barbarous’.

Among other speakers, Rob Gilson ‘denied the equality of Saxon to Norman in anything; Vincent Trought offered ‘the comforting theory that William never really conquered England at all’ but had visited Hastings ‘to get local colour for his new novel’; and W.H. and R.S. Payton and Christopher Wiseman ‘were eloquent upon the negative’ (‘Debating Society’, n.s. 26, no. 184 (December 1910), p. 95). The motion fails, 8 votes to 12.

5 November 1910Ronald plays in a 1st XV home match against the University of Birmingham. King Edward’s School loses, 6 to 20. It may be during this match that Ronald suffers injury to his tongue or nose, as he does not play for the rest of the term. (In playing rugby ‘I got rather damaged – among things having my tongue nearly cut out’: letter to Michael Tolkien, 3 October 1937, Letters , p. 22.) The King Edward’s School Chronicle will note that several members on the 1st XV are now on the injured list.

11 November 1910Vincent Trought reads a paper on Romanticism at a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society.

18 November 1910At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society Ronald speaks against the motion: ‘A system of arbitration would be in every way preferable to war.’ Vincent Trought, W.H. Payton, and Rob Gilson, among others, speak in the affirmative. The motion fails, 5 votes to 12.

December 1910As Debating Society Secretary, Ronald almost certainly writes the report of the meeting of the Society on 4 November published in the King Edward’s School Chronicle for December 1910. As Football Secretary, he possibly also writes the report of matches published in the same number. – The King Edward’s School Musical and Dramatic Society presents the Annual Open Concert. During the evening Rob Gilson recites the abdication speech from Shakespeare’s Richard II , and two scenes from Sheridan’s The Rivals are performed.

2 December 1910At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society Ronald proposes the motion: ‘We are Degenerating.’ According to a report (presumably by Ronald himself) in the King Edward’s School Chronicle , he ‘based all his argument upon intellectual degradation, and inveighed against the artificiality and unwholesomeness of Our outlook. After appearing to proclaim himself a hedonist, he produced what proved to be the most unfortunately conspicuous part of the debate. This was his “Theory of Bumps.” Men progressed in bumps, bumping low, but never bumping as low as they had bumped before’ (‘Debating Society’, n.s. 26, no. 185 (February 1911), p. 5). This theory is taken up by succeeding speakers, and at the end of the debate ‘the Hon. Opener thereupon adjusted his theory of bumps to one of contusions. He remained defiant in a lost cause. He knew the House had a delightful custom of invariably voting Negative. It did.’ Among others, his friend *Thomas Kenneth (‘Tea-Cake’) Barnsley speaks in the affirmative, and Sidney Barrowclough and Vincent Trought argue in the negative. The motion fails, 10 votes to 16.

Mid-December 1910Ronald travels to Oxford on his second attempt to win a scholarship.

16 December 1910At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Debating Society the Old Boys discuss the question of whether ‘the evils of the press have up to now exceeded its benefits.’ The motion fails, 3 votes to 16.

17 December 1910Ronald learns that he has been awarded an Open Classical Exhibition at Exeter College, worth £60 a year. He immediately informs Edith, who telegraphs her congratulations on the same day. He ought to have won a more valuable scholarship, but as he later wrote: ‘I was clever, but not industrious or single-minded; a large part of my failure was due simply to not working (at least not at classics) not because I was in love, but because I was studying something else: Gothic and what not’ (letter to Michael Tolkien, 6–8 March 1941, Letters , p. 52). But this exhibition, together with a bursary from King Edward’s School and some extra finance from Father Francis, makes it possible for him to attend Oxford. He can now enjoy his last two terms at King Edward’s School with pressure removed and his future secure.

Christmas 1910Ronald receives an unsigned Christmas card from Edith.

1911

Spring and summer terms 1911During this period Ronald is one of seventeen pupils in the First Class.

20 January 1911At a meeting of the King Edward’s School Literary Society the Head Master, Robert Cary Gilson, speaks about ‘out of doors literature’: mountaineering, al fresco in poetry, walking tours, and so forth.

27 January 1911The King Edward’s School Debating Society addresses the motion: ‘This House considers that holidays are in no way beneficial, and demands their abolition.’ Rob Gilson opens in the affirmative, arguing that holidays are used for ‘sleep, food, [and] flimsy novels’. T.K. Barnsley likens the desire to work our brains without rest to ‘attempting to set the Koh-i-Noor [diamond] in a jelly’. Sidney Barrowclough objects to Barnsley’s ‘foody topics and his foody initials’ (i.e. ‘T.K.’, ‘tea cake’), Vincent Trought views the motion from three standpoints, R.S. Payton argues that ‘term time [is] for play and holidays for work’, and Christopher Wiseman discusses ‘the subject of morning rising’ (‘Debating Society’, King Edward’s School Chronicle , n.s. 26, no. 185 (February 1911), pp. 8, 9). Ronald himself takes Barnsley’s remark as a personal insult, since he is in the habit of wearing a yellow pencil in his mouth (i.e. a pencil with a yellow barrel, a feature of the Koh-i-Noor brand). The motion fails, 6 votes to 13.