What was the name of the secret society of Tolkien’s school friends that influenced his early creative life?

Tolkien’s school-friend society was called the Tea Club and Barrovian Society, usually abbreviated T.C.B.S.

The group formed among pupils at King Edward’s School in Birmingham. Its members included Tolkien, Geoffrey Bache Smith, Christopher Wiseman, and Robert Gilson. They met to discuss literature, art, and their ambitions, often gathering at the school library or the Barrow’s Stores tea shop.

The T.C.B.S. was important to Tolkien’s early intellectual and creative development. The friends encouraged one another’s writing and maintained their relationships after leaving school. The First World War shattered the group: Gilson and Smith were killed in 1916, while Tolkien and Wiseman survived.

The T.C.B.S. is sometimes confused with the Inklings, the later Oxford literary discussion group that included C.S. Lewis. The two groups belonged to different periods of Tolkien’s life. The T.C.B.S. refers specifically to his school-era circle and its distinctive tea-club name.