Mabel and Jane Tolkien’s older sister, born in 1865, the wife of Walter Incledon, and the mother of Mary and Marjorie Incledon.

While Mabel was living in South Africa, Walter needed to visit Africa on business, and May went with him, comforting Mabel through the harshness of a Bloemfontein winter. She then returned to England with her sister and nephews in 1895.

She received instruction about the Catholic faith with Mabel at St Anne’s in the spring of 1900, and in June 1900, she was received into the Church of Rome. When Walter returned from Africa, however, he forbade her ever to set foot in a Catholic church again. May then turned to spiritualism for comfort.

In 1908, she was living in Barnt Green, a neighbouring village to Rednal. For Christmas 1912, she invited Tolkien to stay with them. She died in 1936.

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