1920 Oxford Out-College Tuition Accounts
20 Sep, 2016
2016-9-20 12:41:39 PM UTC
2016-9-20 12:41:39 PM UTC
John Garth has pointed out on Twitter (https://twitter.com/JohnGarthWriter/status/778210774665789440) that "The first documentary evidence of Tolkien's earliest teaching at Oxford is found in a college archive."
"It has long been claimed in Tolkien literature that, when Gordon came back from the war, he was taught by Tolkien at Univ. However, only this month someone contacted me for the first time to ask if there was any archival evidence for this claim.
There is. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries we have a succession of so-called 'Bursar’s Books'. These are annual volumes of accounts, which record many aspects of domestic income and expenditure, be it how much salary Fellows received, or exactly which College member occupied which room. These books also include records of payments made to tutors brought in from outside the College to teach our students. So when I consulted the Bursar’s Book for 1920 (ref. UC:BU3/F3/93), there appeared this entry for “Out-College Tuition” on page 257 showing Tolkien being paid £5 for English tuition in both Hilary and Trinity Terms - and in the Trinity Term it is explicitly stated that he was teaching E. V. Gordon."
http://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/content/j-r- ... -and-univ-unexpected-link
"It has long been claimed in Tolkien literature that, when Gordon came back from the war, he was taught by Tolkien at Univ. However, only this month someone contacted me for the first time to ask if there was any archival evidence for this claim.
There is. For much of the 19th and 20th centuries we have a succession of so-called 'Bursar’s Books'. These are annual volumes of accounts, which record many aspects of domestic income and expenditure, be it how much salary Fellows received, or exactly which College member occupied which room. These books also include records of payments made to tutors brought in from outside the College to teach our students. So when I consulted the Bursar’s Book for 1920 (ref. UC:BU3/F3/93), there appeared this entry for “Out-College Tuition” on page 257 showing Tolkien being paid £5 for English tuition in both Hilary and Trinity Terms - and in the Trinity Term it is explicitly stated that he was teaching E. V. Gordon."
http://www.univ.ox.ac.uk/content/j-r- ... -and-univ-unexpected-link
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