What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s rank in the British Army during the Battle of the Somme?

J.R.R. Tolkien served as a second lieutenant in the British Army during the Battle of the Somme.

Tolkien was commissioned into the Lancashire Fusiliers in 1915 after studying at Oxford. He served in France during the First World War and took part in the Somme offensive in 1916 as a second lieutenant. He worked as a signals officer and was exposed to the intense conditions of trench warfare.

Tolkien became ill with trench fever later in 1916 and was sent back to England for treatment. Most of the officers in his battalion were killed during the Somme, a loss that deeply affected him. Claims that one specific character or episode in Middle-earth directly represents a single wartime event are usually too simple; Tolkien acknowledged that his experience influenced his imagination, but he resisted one-to-one allegorical readings.