TCG Letter #907

Henry Bradley writes a letter of recomendation to Leeds University where Tolkien has applied for the position of Reader of English Language. Bradley had overseen Tolkien's work on the Oxford English Dictionary.

Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull note that this letter will be enclosed in Tolkien's application in June 1925 for the Chair of Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford.^{Chronology, p. 139 (entry for 'End of June 1925')[1]}

On 21 July 1925, the electors to the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon met to discuss and elect one of the three applicants to the vacated chair. Tolkien is elected in a vote of four to three from Kenneth Sisam. Present are H.M. Chadwick (Cambridge), R.W. Chambers (University College London. Chambers had been offered the position but turned it down), Herman G. Fielder (Oxford), C.T. Onions (Oxford), Rev. Charles Plummer of Corpus Christi College, and Joseph Wells (Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University).^{Tolkien's election is announced the following day in The Times[2]}