Lieutenant Geoffrey Bache Smith

Lieutenant Geoffrey Bache Smith (October 18th, 1894 - December 3rd, 1916) was a friend of J.R.R. Tolkien. Tolkien and Smith attended King Edward's School in Birmingham together. Smith would also become one of the core members of the T.C.B.S., but not until after Vincent Trought's death. He was at that time already enrolled at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, close to Tolkien's Exeter College. The two became close friends there, because most other Edwardians went to Cambridge.

Smith joined the 19th Service Battalion of the Lancashire Fusilliers, the "3rd Salford Pals", and participated in the Battle of the Somme. He was hit by shrapnel on November 29, 1916, and died four days later.

In 1918, a collection of poetry by Smith, titled A Spring Harvest, was published. Tolkien wrote the preface.

https://kes.org.uk/RollofHonour/biogs/smith-geoffrey-bache.html

England, Staffordshire, Church Records, 1538-1944

T.C.B.S., standing for "Tea Club, Barrovian Society", was a club founded in 1913 by J.R.R. Tolkien and his friends at King Edward's School in Birmingham. They usually met at the Barrow Stores, from which the club's name was derived. The main lasting members of the club were the "big four": J.R.R. Tolkien and his close friends Christopher Wiseman, Geoffrey Bache Smith, and Robert Quilter Gilson. Other members were Wilfred and Ralph "the Baby" Payton, Thomas "Tea Cake" Barnsley, Vincent Trought, and Sidney Barrowclough

Vincent Trought

Lieutenant Robert Quilter Gilson

J. R. R. Tolkien

Christopher Luke Wiseman