Editing Christopher Tolkien (section)

== Early life and education ==

Christopher Tolkien was born on 21 November 1924 in [[Leeds]], England,<ref name="BBC 2020">{{cite news |date=16 January 2020 |title='First Middle-earth scholar' Christopher Tolkien dies |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-51143879 |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=17 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200116224939/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-51143879 |archive-date=16 January 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/books/christopher-tolkien-dead.html |title=Christopher Tolkien, keeper of his father's legacy, dies at 95 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=16 January 2020}}</ref> the third of four children and the youngest son of [[J. R. R. Tolkien|J. R. R.]] and [[Edith Tolkien]] (''née'' Bratt).<ref name="Guardian 2020">{{cite news |last=Slawson |first=Nicola |date=16 January 2020 |title=JRR Tolkien's son Christopher dies aged 95 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/16/jrr-tolkiens-son-christopher-dies-aged-95 |work=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=17 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200117154518/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/16/jrr-tolkiens-son-christopher-dies-aged-95 |archive-date=17 January 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> He was educated at the [[Dragon School]] in [[Oxford]], and later at the Roman Catholic [[The Oratory School|Oratory School]] near [[Reading, Berkshire|Reading]].<ref name="Drout 2007">{{cite book |last=Honegger |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Honegger |chapter=Tolkien, Christopher Reuel |editor-last=Drout |editor-first=Michael D. C. |editor-link=Michael Drout |title=The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment |title-link=The J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |date=2007 |pages=663–665 |isbn=978-0-4159-6942-0 }}</ref>

He won a place to study English at [[Trinity College, Oxford]], still aged 17, but after a year and a half there he received his call-up papers for military service. He joined the [[Royal Air Force]] in July 1943 and at the start of 1944 was sent to South Africa for flight training. He gained his "wings" as a fighter pilot and was [[commissioned officer|commissioned]] in January 1945. He was given a posting back in England in February 1945, at [[Market Drayton]] in Shropshire. In June 1945 he switched to the [[Fleet Air Arm]]. While still in the service, he resumed his degree in April 1946; he was demobilised at the end of that year. He took his B.A. in 1948, and his [[Bachelor of Letters|B.Litt.]] in 1953 under the philologist [[Gabriel Turville-Petre]].<ref name="McIlwaine 2022 Intro"/>