Which military regiment did J.R.R. Tolkien serve with during the First World War?

J.R.R. Tolkien served with the Lancashire Fusiliers during the First World War.

After completing his degree, Tolkien received a commission as a second lieutenant and joined the 11th Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. He served in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, one of the war’s most devastating campaigns.

Tolkien became ill with trench fever and was sent back to England for treatment. Most of the close friends he had formed at school and university were killed during the war, an experience that profoundly affected his generation and informed some of the emotional background of his fiction.

The regiment is sometimes confused with the unit’s later wartime designations or with Tolkien’s signals work. His rank was second lieutenant, and his active service at the Somme ended after illness rather than after a long career at the front.