Arthur Tolkien

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Arthur Reuel Tolkien (c. February 1857—15 February 1896), the father of author J.R.R. Tolkien, was born in Handsworth, Staffordshire, England. He was the eldest child of John Benjamin Tolkien and Mary Jane Stowe,[1] who had married on 16 February 1856 in All Saints Parish Church, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England.

Arthur had at least 5 siblings:

Mabel Tolkien (b. 1858), who became Mrs Thomas Evans Mitton;
Grace Bindley Tolkien (b. 1861), who became Mrs William Charles Mountain;
Florence Mary Tolkien (b. 1863), who became Mrs Tom Hadley;
Wilfred Henry Tolkien, a stockbroker, and
Laurence George H. Tolkien, a life and fire insurance secretary, who married Grace.

Marian Esther Tolkien (b. 1866) and Mary Tolkien (b. 1870) may also have been sisters of Arthur.

Arthur's father John had previously been married to Jane Holmwood, with whom he had four children: Emily (b. 1838), Louisa (b. 1840), John Benjamin (b. 1845), and Jane (b. 1846).

John Benjamin Tolkien had been a piano teacher and tuner, as well as a music seller, but he had gone bankrupt. Arthur did not follow his father into the traditional Tolkien trade in pianos, which many of his London cousins also followed; instead he became a bank clerk and ended up moving to South Africa, where he became manager of the Bloemfontein branch of the Bank of Africa.[2] A furniture shop[3] now occupies the Bradlow’s Building on the site where the bank once stood, on the corner of West Burger and Maitland Streets.

Arthur was later joined by his fiancée, Mabel Suffield. They were married on 16 April 1891 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Two children (John Ronald Reuel (b. 1892) and Hilary Arthur Reuel (b. 1894)) followed, and the family lived next door to the bank.

Mabel Tolkien felt the English climate would be better for the boys' health and returned to England with them in 1895. Arthur remained in South Africa, where he died of severe haemorrhage following rheumatic fever, on 15 February 1896, before he had the opportunity to join his family in England.

He is buried in President Brand Cemetery, on the corner of Church and Rhodes Avenues, Bloemfontein.[4]