Tolkien's time in Leeds is coming to an end
In November 1924 the Tolkien family welcomed the arrival of Christopher Reuel Tolkien, born at home at 2 Darnley Road. The new addition to the family would have been a joy to John Ronald and Edith as their life in Leeds was continuing to improve.
Tolkien had been appointed Professor of English at the University of Leeds and their life in West Park (then on the outskirts of north Leeds) was suiting the family on both the domestic and academic fronts.
Tolkien and E.V. Gordon were well into thier collaboration on a new version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Tolkien's glossary was being reviewed and the completed work was published in April 1925.
At the end of April the Tolkien family had a holiday on the east coast near the seaside town of Filey, where Micheal (Tolkien's second son) lost a treasured toy, a model of a little dog called Rover.
In June 1925 W.A. Craigie left the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professorship of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford and by the end of June Tolkien had submitted his formal application. This was well received in the city of dreaming spires and by the end of July his successful election was announced in The Times. This announcement and the change of Tolkien's academic position was delayed by six months, the notice period required by the University of Leeds.
Toward the end of 1969, in a letter to Christopher, Tolkien referred to his time teaching in Leeds,
As to your last paragraph! I am wholly in favour of the 'dull stodges'. I had once a considerable experience of what are/were probably England's most (at least apparently) dullest and stodgiest students: Yorkshire's young men and women of sub-public school class and home backgrounds bookless and cultureless. That does not, however, necessarily indicate the actual innate mental capacity – largely unawakened – of any given individual. A surprisingly large proportion prove 'educable': for which a primary qualification is the willingness to do some work (to learn) (at any
level of intelligence).
The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien, H. Carpenter (Ed.), (London: HarperCollins, 1981) 403
Tolkien and his family moved to Oxford in early January 1926 and Tolkien's last connection with Leeds was in April of the same year.
This is the end of the Tolkiens' time in Leeds