Recent discoveries in Oxford’s Bodleian Library and Oxford Union Library reveal the vivacious engagement of Tolkien’s poet friend and fellow Oxonian, Geoffrey Bache Smith, in debates held at the Oxford Union, the debate chamber in which Oxford’s undergraduates honed their skills of disputation and witty repartee. Reports on the Union debates in the student periodicals The Isis and The Varsity reveal Smith’s colourful persona and knowledge of current events in the late 1910s. Yet this witty side of Tolkien’s friend is contrasted by one of metaphysical reflection, love of nature, and growing maturity as he served as a Lieutenant with the 19th Lancashire Fusiliers at the Somme during the First World War. Smith’s wit and wisdom show a complex personality, revealing a contrast of the public and private sides of a person whose influence on Tolkien was profound and long-lasting.