What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s academic title at the University of Leeds in 1924?

J.R.R. Tolkien became Professor of English Language at the University of Leeds in 1924.

Tolkien joined the University of Leeds in 1920 as a Reader in English Language. He was promoted to Professor of English Language in 1924 and remained at Leeds until 1925, when he moved to the University of Oxford.

His Leeds years were important to his academic development. He taught subjects connected with Old and Middle English, philology, and the history of languages. During this period, he also collaborated with E. V. Gordon on the edition of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, published in 1925.

A common mix-up is to associate Tolkien’s Leeds position with his later Oxford professorships. At Oxford he became Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon in 1925 and later Merton Professor of English Language and Literature. Those were distinct appointments at different stages of his career.