On what date did J.R.R. Tolkien marry Edith Bratt?

J.R.R. Tolkien married Edith Bratt on 22 March 1916. The wedding took place at St Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic Church in Warwick, England.

Tolkien and Edith had known each other since Tolkien was a teenager, but his guardian, Father Francis Morgan, initially discouraged the relationship while Tolkien was still young. Tolkien and Edith became engaged in 1913, after Tolkien reached the age of 21, and they married three years later.

Their marriage lasted until Edith’s death in 1971. Tolkien’s fictional story of Beren and Lúthien was inspired in part by Edith, especially by an occasion when she danced in a woodland clearing. Tolkien later had the names Beren and Lúthien placed on their shared gravestone.

The wedding date is distinct from Tolkien’s 1916 military service and from the date of his World War I posting. He married Edith shortly before serving with the British Army during the First World War.