What was the name of J.R.R. Tolkien’s wartime unit in the British Army in 1916?

In 1916, J.R.R. Tolkien served with the 11th Service Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers.

Tolkien received his commission as a second lieutenant and trained before being sent to the Western Front during the First World War. He took part in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Many of the men he knew from his school and university years were killed, an experience that shaped his understanding of loss and fellowship.

Tolkien later developed trench fever and was sent back to England for treatment. He did not return to front-line service. During recovery, he began writing early versions of stories that contributed to the mythology later associated with Middle-earth, including the tale of Gondolin.

It is too simple to identify one fictional place or character as a direct portrait of a wartime event. Tolkien resisted straightforward allegorical readings, but his war experience clearly informed themes such as friendship, courage, homesickness, sacrifice, and the destructive power of industrialized conflict.