Geoffrey Bache Smith

Born on October 18, 1894, Geoffrey Bache Smith was an English poet who studied at King Edward’s School in Birmingham and later at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He became one of the core members of the T.C.B.S., the close circle of friends that also included J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Wiseman, and Robert Gilson.

During the First World War, Smith served as an officer and was wounded by shrapnel on the Somme. He died of his wounds on December 3, 1916, at only twenty-two. Even so, he left behind a body of poetry that friends and readers continued to value after his death.

His best-known book, A Spring Harvest, was published posthumously in 1918 and edited by Tolkien, who added a note to the volume. That connection has helped keep Smith’s name alive, but his work stands on its own as thoughtful, lyrical writing shaped by youth, friendship, and war.