What was the name of J.R.R. Tolkien’s wartime army unit in the First World War?

J.R.R. Tolkien served in the 11th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers, during the First World War. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1915 after studying at Oxford and training for military service.

Tolkien fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. He served as a signals officer, a role involving battlefield communications, and became ill with trench fever later that year. He was sent back to England, where he spent much of the remainder of the war recovering and performing duties connected with training.

Claims that The Lord of the Rings is a direct allegory of the First World War are too simple. Tolkien rejected one-to-one allegorical readings, but his wartime experience undoubtedly formed part of his life and informed his understanding of friendship, loss, endurance, and the destructive power of war.