What was J.R.R. Tolkien’s service branch during World War I?

J.R.R. Tolkien served in the British Army during World War I.

Tolkien served as a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers. After graduating from Oxford in 1915, he joined the army and received military training before being sent to France in 1916. He took part in the Battle of the Somme, one of the war’s major and most deadly campaigns.

Tolkien contracted trench fever in October 1916 and was returned to England for medical treatment. He spent much of the remainder of the war in England and was eventually discharged from active service. Several close school friends were killed during the conflict, an experience that influenced his understanding of friendship, loss, endurance, and fellowship.

Tolkien did not serve in the Royal Navy or the Royal Flying Corps. His wartime service was in the army, and the Lancashire Fusiliers were an infantry regiment. Claims that one specific fictional character directly represents a single wartime friend are usually more complicated than simple one-to-one comparisons.