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1895

1895 The heat of South Africa having affected Mabel and Ronald so badly, she and Arthur decide that, rather than wait until they can travel together to England on home-leave, she should go on ahead with the boys, and Arthur will join them later, when he feels able to leave the bank.

Late March or early April 1895 Ronald watches his father paint ‘A.R. Tolkien’ on the lid of a cabin trunk.

Beginning of April 1895 Mabel Tolkien, Ronald and Hilary, and the boys’ nurse embark on the steamer Guelph at Cape Town. A comparatively new vessel on the Union Steamship Company’s Southampton-to-South Africa ‘intermediate service’ (that is, designed to transport cargo at an economical speed, as well as passengers), it has a boat deck above the bridge-house

where passengers are allowed to promenade. The ladies’ music saloon is forward, while under it is the first-class dining saloon, arranged for 45 passengers. On the upper deck, ranged along either side of the ship, are the first-class cabins, the smoking-room being aft. The second-class passengers are housed in the poop [raised section at the stern] on the upper deck, with dining saloon and drawing-room, while the steerage passengers are below on the main deck. A special feature is a large dormitory right forward, occupying the full width of the ship, where 64 men can be accommodated, the fare being 10 guineas. [‘Passengers v. Freight Steamships’, Engineering, 12 October 1894, p. 495]

Much later in life, according to The Tolkien Family Album, Tolkien will remember from the long voyage to England ‘two brilliantly sharp images: the first of looking down from the deck of the ship into the clear waters of the Indian Ocean far below, which was full of lithe brown and black bodies diving for coins thrown by the passengers; the second was of pulling into a harbour at sunrise and seeing a great city set on the hillside above, which he realised much later in life must have been Lisbon’ (p. 18). When the family arrive in Southampton three weeks later they are met by Mabel’s sister Jane, and together travel to Birmingham. They stay with Mabel’s parents, Jane, and their brother William at 9 Ashfield Road, Kings Heath (see *Birmingham and environs). Ronald now will also meet his Tolkien relatives and become part of a much larger family circle, although throughout his life he will feel himself more a Suffield than a Tolkien.

Spring–summer 1895 Ronald’s health improves. Arthur Tolkien writes to say that he misses his wife and children, but his departure for England is always delayed.

November 1895 Arthur Tolkien, still in South Africa, becomes ill; some later reports will call his illness rheumatic fever, others typhoid fever. Although he seems to recover, he does not think it wise to undertake the long journey home and then face an English winter.

Christmas 1895 Ronald enjoys his first wintry Christmas with a real Christmas tree.