author
Geoffrey Bache Smith
1894–1916
A gifted young poet and one of J. R. R. Tolkien’s closest school friends, he wrote with unusual warmth and intensity before his life was cut short in the First World War. His small body of work still carries the energy of a writer who seemed only just to be beginning.
1 Audiobook
A Spring Harvest
by Geoffrey Bache Smith
About the author
Born in West Bromwich on October 18, 1894, Geoffrey Bache Smith was educated at King Edward’s School in Birmingham and later studied at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. He became part of the close circle later known as the Tea Club and Barrovian Society, alongside J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Wiseman, and Rob Gilson.
Smith was known among his friends for his love of literature and poetry, and he was one of the promising young writers in that group. When the First World War began, he joined the army and was commissioned in the Lancashire Fusiliers. He was wounded by shellfire on the Western Front and died on December 3, 1916, at the age of 22.
After his death, his poems were gathered and published in A Spring Harvest in 1918. He is remembered not only as a war poet, but also as an important early friend of Tolkien whose encouragement and shared sense of artistic purpose helped shape the world around him.