Thomas Kenneth Barnsley

Thomas Kenneth Barnsley (?-1917), also known as "Tea Cake" was a frirend of J.R.R. Tolkien at King Edward's School in Birmingham. Barnsley was in the Debating Society with Tolkien and he also performed in The Rivals. He was also a member of the T.C.B.S., though not within the inner circle of friends. While reading History at Cambridge he decided to join the 1st Birmingham Battalion in World War I. After rising to the rank of Captain, in August 1916 he was buried alive by a trench mortar, though he managed to escape and return to England. After returning to France in July of 1917 he was killed in action near Ypres while consolidating a captured prisoner. Barnsley would be one of the many of Tolkien friends to die in the war.

References

• The J.R.R. Tolkien Companion and Guide