Arthur Reuel Tolkien | death notice, testament, etc. (1896)

In my text I have used some information from Boris Gorelik's article: 'Africa… always moves me deeply’: Tolkien in Bloemfontein, "Mallorn", The Journal of the Tolkien Society Issue 55, Winter 2014.

Arthur Reuel Tolkien's profile
in the Tolkien Family Tree made by me on Ancestry.co.uk

Arthur Tolkien’s obituary, "The Friend", 18 February 1896.

Interesting discovery! On FamilySearch I have found Arthur Reuel Tolkien's death notice from 1896 (source):

Source: FamilySearch.org

There are many interesting details there. First of all we can see full address under which Arthur Reuel Tolkien was born on 18 February 1857, and this information is new to me:

Hall Road - (West Bromwich) Handsworth, Staffordshire, England

About the places where Arthur's father, John Benjamin Tolkien lived with his family you can read here, here, and here.

Hall Road, Handsworth today (Google Maps)

There are detailed dates of Arthur Reuel's birth and death (he died three days before his 39th birthday!):

b. 18 February 1857 - d. 15 February 1896

The document provides us also with the cause of Arthur's death: enteric fever a class of fevers that includes typhoid. Read about this disease here.

I have also found Arthur and Mabel's testament in Afrikaans and English. This is the English version:

Source: FamilySearch.org

Source: FamilySearch.org

 I like the signatures of Arthur and Mabel:

Source: FamilySearch.org

We can see that J. R. R. Tolkien's handswriting was very like his mother's.

I find this list very interesting too. It is an inventory of Arthur and Mabel's goods in South Africa. After Arthur's death Mabel wrote a letter to the Bloemfontein Board of Executors, asking them to sell things from their Bank House flat, ‘I hope they will fetch enough to clear all debts at Bloemfontein and here.':

Source: FamilySearch.org

 These goods were:

• madeira chair
• chair cushion
• felt
• golf balls
• all on table
• table
• madeira chair
• photos [maybe lost photos of Arthur's parents?]
  
• frames
• stair rods
• curtains pole
• screen
• piano
  

According to other documents [‘Tolkien, Arthur Reuel. Eggenote: Mabel (gebore Suffield)’ (1896). Free State Provincial Archives, source: MHG; reference: T311.] auctioned possessions incuded also a Japanese vase and a Japanese tea set, two assegais (African spears) and two baby carriages.

The corner of Maitland and West Burger with the Bank of Africa in the foreground (1880s). (Barron Morl. Free State Provincial Archives, no. VA 5289.)