What was the name of Tolkien’s school literary society formed with three friends?

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

The group formed at King Edward’s School in Birmingham and included J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert Gilson, Geoffrey Bache Smith, and Christopher Wiseman. The friends shared an enthusiasm for literature, poetry, mythology, and discussion. They met in the school library and at Barrow’s Stores, a Birmingham department store, which helped inspire the society’s name.

The T.C.B.S. mattered greatly to Tolkien’s early intellectual and creative life. Its members encouraged one another to write and to pursue ambitious artistic goals. World War I later brought profound loss: Gilson was killed during the Battle of the Somme, and Smith died from wounds received in the war.

The group is sometimes confused with the Inklings, the later Oxford literary circle that included Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. The T.C.B.S. belonged to Tolkien’s school years, while the Inklings became important decades later, chiefly during Tolkien’s academic life at Oxford.