Tolkien before the Great War

[Voronwë the Faithful]

John Garth has new blog post about a "newly discovered photograph reveals J.R.R. Tolkien at fifteen in his school’s new cadet corps—launched in 1907 as nations geared up for war."

http://johngarth.wordpress.com/2014/03/ ... ior-to-be/

[Elentári]

I linked to the Birmingham Mail article in my thread about the BBC broadcast...

http://thehalloffire.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3557

[Túrin Turambar]

Interesting article.

The practice of having cadet corps at school seems like it belongs to some martial pre-1914 world, but I know it continues today at many elite schools. That said, the messages being given to the students would be very different to Lord Roberts’: “he wanted to see every able-bodied boy learn to shoot his rifle with skill. He wanted every boy to understand that not only was it his bounden duty but an honour and a privilege to defend his country”.

But that reflected a fundamental difference in the teaching given to young people then as to young people today. Today school students are taught to be individuals, follow their dreams and seek to lead a personally fulfilling life. Schoolkids of Tolkien’s generation were taught about duty, service and playing your part. It was one of the causes of the deep cultural divide of the 1960s and 1970s. It was interesting that Tolkien was in the process of making up fairy-languages while trying to follow this advice.

As a side note, is the man in the close-up photo with the spiked helmet and iron cross in the front row wearing a German uniform?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm not knowledgeable enough to say, but I certainly can see why you ask that.

Maybe I'll ask John.

[Elentári]

Interesting article.

The practice of having cadet corps at school seems like it belongs to some martial pre-1914 world, but I know it continues today at many elite schools.

Yep - my youngest son is about to start his CCF training at school this term and is very excited about it. But then, he is thinking of a career in the Royal Marines Band Service anyway so it is ideal experience for him.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

LM, here is a response I got to your question when I posted it at John's blog, from someone named godfreyofboulogne:

Doug, in the wake of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, suddenly the Prussian Army rather than the Napoleonic became the model which everyone wanted to emulate, and versions of the Pickelhaube became ubiquitous; even the US Army wore them for a while. The British Household Cavalry still wear them today. (Another influence was the Prussian ‘Waffenrock’ blouse, still worn, slightly modified, as a dress uniform tunic by the Foot Guards and the US Marines.

[Túrin Turambar]

Thanks!

That makes sense.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

More info from the same person:

OK, John- I realize your interest in the Man in the Helmet probably ranges somewhere between ‘minuscule’ and ‘infinitesimal,’ but he piqued my curiosity because he stands out, and he actually provides a little window into British citizen-soldier arrangements in the leadup to WWI.

He is wearing the uniform of a Sergeant-Instructor of the Birmingham Volunteer Rifles, a corps which within just a few months would be re-organized as the 1st Volunteer Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. The Volunteers, created by an Act of Parliament in 1859, occupied a status superior to the Militia and on a par with the mounted Yeomanry; in 1908 the latter two would be amalgamated as the Territorial Force and integrated as battalions within Regular regiments. The membership tended to middle-class or prosperous tradesmen (as opposed to the laborers etc of the militia), since they had to buy their own kit and weren’t paid except for training or when actually called out “in the event of invasion or insurrection, or the appearance of an enemy force on the coast.” Paying for their own uniforms tended to result in hanging on to styles which were decidedly out of date, as in this picture.

With the Childers Reforms in 1881 the Volunteer corps were ‘affiliated’ with regular regiments; in the case of the BVR this was the 60th Foot (King’s Royal Rifle Corps), and so the uniform adopted then was based on the latter, albeit without the costly piping and frogging. It was of course Rifle green with black accoutrements (as opposed to the red and white of the Line), and officers and warrant officers wore the distinctive Rifles cross-belt that our Helmet Man sports. Their badge, worn as a helmet and belt plate, was the Bath-Cross-with-crown of the KRRC but without the battle honors of the 60th. The assemblage is very 1880s in style; the KRRC had abandoned the German-style helmet in 1892, and while they still retained Rifle green dress uniforms, by 1907 they like the rest of the Regular Army had adopted everyday service uniforms in olive-khaki like the others in the photo are wearing.

Our man is wearing sergeant’s chevrons on his right sleeve (you have to look closely because they are indistinct, black on a dull-red backing), and above them the crossed-rifles-with-crown of a musketry instructor. This I think explains the cross-belt, ordinarily only worn by officers and warrant officers (ie the RSM and RQMS); Sergeants-Instructor were authorized to wear swords on parade.

I would venture then that Helmet Man was brought onto the KES OTC staff as a shooting instructor; some of the TCBS, notably Payton, proved to be quite good shots and Tolkien wasn’t bad.

And from John in response:

Godfrey, perhaps we can identify Helmet Man. The item in the King Edward’s School Chronicle of March 1907 about the establishment of the Cadet Corps includes this detail:
“A Captain’s commission in 1st V.B. Royal Warwickshire Regiment has already been, or will shortly be granted to Mr. Hume, who will be the commanding officer. Mr. Hume has for many years been an ardent worker towards the formation of a corps at King Edward’s, and the whole School is greatly indebted to him for his untiring zeal and unflagging energy. He was for some years a member of the Edinburgh University Corps, and so is by no means inexperienced in the art and science of Volunteering.
“Mr. Kirkby and H.C. Harrison have been appointed Lieutenants under him. Mr. Smith has promised to take charge of the miniature range in the cloisters, and it is hoped that, under his able tuition, a King Edward’s Eight will be seen beginning at Bisley [rifle ranges] before many years are over. It is perhaps not generally known that Mr. Smith is one of the finest long distance shots that either Oxford or Cambridge can boast of, and that he has won many valuable trophies in the shooting world.”
So, one potential officer of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Warwickshires, Mr Hume, and one musketry instructor, Mr Smith. I presume Mr Hume, though, is Helmet Man.