21 July 1916 At 10.00 a.m. the 74th Infantry Brigade parades and marches to billets at Bus-lès-Artois, arriving at 4.00 p.m., having had dinner on the way. Tolkien will note in his diary that he slept in huts in a wood this night and the two following nights.
22 July 1916 Lieutenant Ralph S. Payton, one of Tolkien’s friends from King Edward’s School, is killed on the Somme while leading his machine gunners into action.
22–23 July 1916 The 11th Battalion is kept busy with more training at Buslès-Artois.
23 July 1916 In the morning, Tolkien attends a Roman Catholic service.
24 July 1916 At 10.00 a.m. the 74th Infantry Brigade, including the 11th Battalion, parades and marches to Mailly-Maillet. They arrive around noon and are served dinner. The 74th is to relieve the 87th Infantry Brigade. The large wood south-west of the village is often used for troop encampments. At 1.30 p.m. each platoon of the 11th Battalion is guided from the wood to the front line trenches at Beaumont-Hamel by a member of the 1st Border Regiment, whom the battalion is relieving. The relief is completed at about 5.00 p.m. The Battalion diary will note: ‘Trenches very good + a good supply of deep dugouts for men’. A, B, and D Companies are in the front line, with C Company in support.
25 July 1916 Smith writes to Tolkien, praising his poem The Lonely Isle.
25–29 July 1916 Except for occasional shelling which causes six deaths, the 11th Battalion spends much of this relatively quiet period repairing and strengthening existing trenches as well as digging new ones and a headquarters area for the battalion and the brigade. At night men excavate forward dugouts and set up wire barriers. The communications system is mended and strengthened. An armoured cable is laid between battle headquarters and the battalions in line. On the night of 28–29 July patrols sent out to examine enemy wire are unable to do so because of hostile fire. On 29 July two German aeroplanes circle for from 5.00 to 7.00 p.m. until driven away by anti-aircraft fire. During this period Tolkien spends his nights in trenches near Auchonvillers and Beaumont-Hamel.
30 July 1916 The 11th Battalion is relieved at 4.00 a.m. by the 9th Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and returns to Mailly-Maillet as part of the Division reserve. Tolkien will note in his diary that he slept in the wood at Mailly-Maillet on the nights of 30 July to 4 August.
31 July 1916 The men of the 11th Battalion take baths. New men are trained on Lewis Guns (light machine guns) and bombing.
1 August 1916 Minden Day. At 9.30 a.m., following physical drill, the 11th Battalion commemorates with a ceremonial parade the Lancashire Fusiliers’ part in the Battle of Minden on 1 August 1759, a famous victory against the French during the Seven Years’ War. In late morning there is training, and in the afternoon sporting competitions are held: Inter-Company Drill Competition, Blindfold Boxing, Potato Race, Inter-Company Relay Race, and Inter-Company Tug-of-War. At 6.00 p.m. the 74th Infantry Brigade Troupe gives a concert. The officers dine with staff captain Major G.C.S. Hodgson. During the night working parties from the battalion help to repair trenches.
2–4 August 1916 The 11th Battalion, still in reserve, is occupied with drilling and training. Working parties assist day and night in work on dugouts and trenches for the 74th Infantry Brigade headquarters.
4 August 1916 (postmark) Smith writes to Tolkien, probably enclosing a letter Wiseman had written to Smith on hearing of Gilson’s death, in which Smith has underlined parts. When Tolkien receives it he too marks certain parts and adds his comments.
5 August 1916 The 11th Battalion, relieved of reserve duties at Mailly-Maillet by the 1st Leicestershires, marches to a camp between Acheux and Bertrancourt, arriving at 2.00 p.m. Tolkien will note in his diary that he slept in a tent at Bertrancourt on the nights of 5 and 6 August.
6 August 1916 At 10.00 a.m. Tolkien attends a Roman Catholic service in the church at Bertrancourt. In the afternoon, the 11th Battalion undergoes more training.
7 August 1916 In the morning the 11th Battalion is given physical training. Lieutenant-Colonel L.G. Bird, Commanding Officer of the 11th Battalion, orders an advance party consisting of Second Lieutenant G.A. Potts, Second Lieutenant Tolkien, the battalion sergeant major, and four company sergeant majors to report to battalion headquarters in the trenches at 11.00 am. The rest of the battalion is to parade at 1.00 pm, then at 1.30 p.m. to proceed to the trenches. The Headquarters Signallers are to leave first, followed by D and C Companies, the Battalion Bombers, and A and B Companies. Officers’ kits for the trenches are to be handed in to the Quartermaster by noon, carefully and legibly labelled. By 5.30 p.m. the battalion arrives at its destination, opposite Beaumont-Hamel with the villages of Colincamps and Mailly-Maillet to the rear. On arrival it immediately begins to repair trenches damaged by enemy action. See note. Tolkien will note in his diary that he slept in the sucrérie at Mailly-Maillet, south-east of Colincamps, on the nights of 7 to 9 August; in fact the ruined sugar refinery is nearer to Colincamps.
8 August 1916 R.H. Gordon of Exeter College is killed in action on the Somme.
8–9 August 1916 The 11th Battalion proceeds with trench repairs, interrupted only when under fire; four men are killed and four wounded.
10 August 1916 Relieved by the 1st Welsh Guards in the afternoon, the 11th Battalion marches to Bus-lès-Artois. Lieutenant-Colonel Bird’s orders for this operation instruct companies to report completion of relief by wire to battalion headquarters, and specify that all officers’ kits and other stores for transport are to be at the Dump at the end of Cheeroh Avenue (the main communication trench to the front line) no later than 3.00 p.m., with officers’ servants in attendance. If required, some of the signalling personnel are to stay in the line until 11 August to ensure the smooth working of communications; but Tolkien will record that he slept that night, and the following four nights, in the ‘same billets as before at Bus[-lès-Artois]’. In the evening he goes into a nearby wood, thinks about Gilson, and considers Wiseman’s letter (see entry for 4 August).
11–14 August 1916 The 11th Battalion remains at Bus-lès-Artois, occupied with drills, training, inspections, and boxing competitions, and on 13 August with baths. The 25th Divisional Engineers conduct training in visual signalling, and in office wiring and cable joining.
11 August 1916 Smith writes to Tolkien, thanking him for a letter (written probably before Tolkien received Wiseman’s letter from Smith) and commenting, presumably in response to something Tolkien wrote, that he thinks ‘there are still a great many sober men and true’ (Tolkien Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford). – In the evening, Tolkien again goes into the wood to sit and think.
12–13 August 1916 Tolkien writes a letter to Smith, thanking him for sending Wiseman’s letter. Tolkien has thought much since receiving it, and finds that he no longer agrees with the comments he made on it:
What I meant, and thought Chris meant, and am almost sure you meant, was that the T.C.B.S. had been granted some spark of fire – certainly as a body if not singly – that was destined to kindle a new light, or, what is the same thing, rekindle an old light in the world; that the T.C.B.S. was destined to testify for God and Truth in a more direct way even than by laying down its several lives in this war (which is for all the evil of our own side in the large view good against evil). So far my chief impression is that something has gone crack. I feel just the same to both of you – nearer if anything and very much in need of you – I am hungry and lonely of course – but I don’t feel a member of a little complete body now. I honestly feel that the T.C.B.S. has ended – but I am not at all sure that it is not an unreliable feeling that will vanish – like magic perhaps when we come together again. Still I feel a mere individual at present – with intense feelings more