C. S. Lewis, or Jack Lewis, as he preferred to be called, was born in Belfast, Ireland on November 29, 1898. He was the second son of Albert Lewis, a lawyer, and Flora Hamilton Lewis. His older brother, Warren Hamilton Lewis, who was known as Warnie, had been born three years earlier in 1895.
The Lewis family moved to their new home, "Little Lea," on the outskirts of Belfast.
Flora Hamilton Lewis died of cancer on August 23. During this year Albert Lewis' father and brother also died. In September Lewis was enrolled at Wynyard School, Watford, Hertfordshire referred to by C.S. Lewis as "Oldie's School" or "Belsen".
On April 15 Lewis was wounded on Mount Berenchon during the Battle of Arras. He recuperated and was returned to duty in October, being assigned to Ludgerhall, Andover, England.
From October 1924 until May 1925, Lewis served as philosophy tutor at University College during E.F. Carritt's absence on study leave for the year in America.
Lewis became a Christian: One evening in September, Lewis had a long talk on Christianity with J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. That evening's discussion was important in bringing about the following day's event that Lewis recorded in Surprised by Joy: "When we set out I did not believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, and when we reached the zoo I did."
Charles Williams, one of Lewis' very closest of friends, died on May 15
Lewis awarded honorary Doctor of Divinity by the University of St. Andrews.
Lewis's own health deteriorated, and in the summer of 1963 he resigned his post at Cambridge. His death, which occurred on November 22, 1963—the same day President Kennedy was assassinated—was only quietly noted.
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