J.R.R. Tolkien received the CBE for his services to literature in 1972.
The initials CBE stand for Commander of the Order of the British Empire. The honour recognized Tolkien’s contribution to literature after the worldwide success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He received the honour from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.
Tolkien had already achieved major academic distinction before receiving the CBE. His career included professorships at Oxford, and his fiction had become internationally influential by the early 1970s. He died the following year, in 1973.
The CBE is sometimes confused with a knighthood. Tolkien was not knighted; Commander was the level of the order he received. The award also came after his retirement from Oxford and near the end of his life, rather than during the period when he was first writing The Hobbit.