In J.R.R. Tolkien’s biography, which city was his birthplace in 1892?

J.R.R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in 1892.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein, then part of the Orange Free State in southern Africa. His father, Arthur Tolkien, worked there as a bank manager. Tolkien spent his earliest years in Bloemfontein before moving to England with his mother and younger brother.

The family settled in Birmingham after Tolkien’s father died in 1896. Tolkien’s later landscapes were shaped mainly by the English countryside, especially the area around Sarehole, but Bloemfontein remains his birthplace. Another common error is to identify Oxford as his birthplace; Oxford was the city where he later taught and lived for many years.