He had an extraordinary and romantic affair with Edith Mary Bratt.
When Tolkien and his brother Hilary moved into Edith Mary Bratt's boarding house in Duchess Road, Edgbaston, at the age of 16, she was living there and was three years older than them. Humphrey Carpenter asserts "In Birmingham, Edith and Ronald frequently visited milk tea cafés, particularly one with a balcony facing out onto the pavement. When the sugar bowl was empty, they would proceed to the next table and continue throwing sugar cubes onto people's hats as they passed by.
When two people have personalities and social standing in common, romance is certain to flourish. Both are lonely orphans in need of love, and they realized they might help each other. They decided they were in love in the summer of 1909."
Unfortunately, Father Morgan, Tolkien's severe and rigid guardian, believes that his surrogate son is too young to be in a committed relationship with a woman and has forbidden him from speaking to Edith until he is 21. Tolkien faithfully followed the prohibition and didn't send Edith a letter until the evening of his 21st birthday.
He begs her to marry him, claiming that he has never stopped loving her. Edith retorted that she had agreed to George Field's proposal, the brother of one of her closest schoolmates. However, Edith claims that the only reason she consented to Field's marriage was that she felt "bonded" and started to believe that Tolkien was still drawn to her. She tells how everything has altered as a result of Tolkien's letter. Amazingly, their relationship blossomed into love and they were married a few years later.
