Appendix C: Chronology of the Life and Times of C. S. Lewis

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.”

— Psalm 90:12, KJV

The dates below are meant as orientation. Where the sources disagree, the disagreement is noted.

1895 - Warren

Warren Hamilton Lewis is born in Belfast on 16 June, the elder son of Albert James Lewis, a solicitor, and Florence (Flora) Hamilton Lewis.

1898 - Jack

Clive Staples Lewis is born on 29 November at Dundela Villas, Strandtown, Belfast. As a small boy he takes the name Jacksie, later Jack.

1905 - Little Lea

In April the family moves to Little Lea, a new house on the Circular Road, Strandtown. Warnie goes to Wynyard School, Watford.

1908 - His Mother’s Death

Flora Lewis dies of cancer on 23 August. In September Jack is sent to Wynyard School with Warnie.

1910-1913 - Schools

Wynyard closes in 1910. Jack spends a term at Campbell College, Belfast, then from January 1911 attends Cherbourg House, Malvern, where he abandons the Christian faith.

1913-1914 - Malvern College

Jack attends Malvern College from September 1913 to the summer of 1914. In April 1914 he meets Arthur Greeves.

1914-1917 - Great Bookham

From September 1914 Jack is tutored by William T. Kirkpatrick at Great Bookham, Surrey. He is confirmed at St Mark’s, Dundela, in December 1914, without belief.

1916 - Phantastes

In March he buys George MacDonald’s Phantastes at Leatherhead station. In December he wins a scholarship to University College, Oxford.

1917 - Oxford and the Army

He comes up to University College in April. In June he joins a cadet battalion at Keble College and shares a room with Paddy Moore. Commissioned in the Somerset Light Infantry in September, he reaches the front line in France on his nineteenth birthday, 29 November.

1918 - Wounded

Paddy Moore is posted missing in late March and later confirmed killed. On 15 April Lewis is wounded at Mont-Bernenchon, and Sergeant Harry Ayres is killed beside him. He convalesces in England and is demobilised in December.

1919 - Return to Oxford

Lewis resumes his studies in January. Mrs Moore and Maureen settle in Oxford. Spirits in Bondage is published in March under the name Clive Hamilton.

1920-1923 - Three Firsts

First Class in Honour Moderations (1920), Literae Humaniores (1922) and English (1923).

1925 - Magdalen

In May Lewis is elected a Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, as tutor in English.

1926 - Tolkien

On 11 May Lewis meets J. R. R. Tolkien at a meeting of the English faculty at Merton College.

1929 - His Father’s Death

Albert Lewis dies in Belfast on 25 September.

1929 or 1930 - Theism

Lewis kneels and acknowledges God in his rooms at Magdalen. He dates it to the summer term of 1929; Alister McGrath has argued, and most scholars now accept, that it was the summer term of 1930.

1930 - The Kilns

On 10 October Lewis, Mrs Moore and Maureen move into the Kilns, Headington Quarry.

1931 - Faith in Christ

On 19 September Lewis talks through the night with Tolkien and Hugo Dyson on Addison’s Walk. On 28 September, on the way to Whipsnade Zoo, he comes to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. On Christmas Day he takes Communion at Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry.

1932-1933 - The Pilgrim’s Regress

Warnie retires from the army in December 1932 and makes his home at the Kilns. The Pilgrim’s Regress is published in 1933.

1936-1938 - Scholar and Novelist

The Allegory of Love (1936). Friendship with Charles Williams begins. Out of the Silent Planet (1938).

1939 - War

Evacuee children come to the Kilns. Charles Williams moves to Oxford with the Oxford University Press.

1940 - Pain and Confession

The Problem of Pain is published in October. In the same month Lewis begins weekly confession with Father Walter Adams of the Society of St John the Evangelist.

1941 - Screwtape and the BBC

The Screwtape Letters appear weekly in The Guardian from May to November. Lewis begins speaking to the RAF. His first BBC talk is broadcast on 6 August. He preaches The Weight of Glory on 8 June.

1942 - The Socratic Club

The Socratic Club holds its first meeting in January, with Lewis as president. The Screwtape Letters is published as a book in February. Around this time the Agape Fund is set up.

1943-1945 - The War Years

The Abolition of Man (1943), Perelandra (1943), the last of the broadcast talks (1944), That Hideous Strength and The Great Divorce (1945). Charles Williams dies on 15 May 1945.

1947 - Miracles

Miracles is published. Lewis appears on the cover of Time in September. Warnie is treated at Drogheda.

1948 - Anscombe

On 2 February Elizabeth Anscombe reads her criticism of Miracles to the Socratic Club. Lewis later revises the chapter for the 1960 edition.

1949 - Exhaustion

In June Lewis collapses and is treated in the Acland nursing home.

1950 - Narnia

In January Joy Davidman first writes to Lewis. In April Mrs Moore enters Restholme nursing home. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is published in October.

1951 - Mrs Moore’s Death

Janie Moore dies on 12 January and is buried at Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry.

1952 - Meeting Joy

Mere Christianity is published. Father Walter Adams dies. On 24 September Lewis meets Joy Davidman at the Eastgate Hotel, Oxford.

1954-1955 - Cambridge

Lewis accepts the new chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge, gives his inaugural lecture on 29 November 1954, and takes up residence at Magdalene College in January 1955. Surprised by Joy is published in 1955.

1956 - Marriage and Cancer

The Last Battle, the seventh Narnia book, and Till We Have Faces are published. On 23 April Lewis and Joy marry in a civil ceremony at the Oxford register office. On 18 October Joy’s femur breaks and cancer is diagnosed.

1957 - The Bedside Wedding

On 21 March Peter Bide marries Lewis and Joy in her hospital room and prays for her healing. Joy goes home to the Kilns and her cancer goes into remission. Lewis develops osteoporosis.

1958-1959 - Three Years

Reflections on the Psalms (1958). A honeymoon in Ireland (1958). In October 1959 Joy’s cancer returns.

1960 - Greece and Joy’s Death

The Four Loves is published. From 3 to 14 April Lewis and Joy tour Greece with Roger and June Lancelyn Green. Joy dies at the Radcliffe Infirmary on 13 July. Lewis becomes guardian of David and Douglas Gresham.

1961 - A Grief Observed

A Grief Observed is published in September under the name N. W. Clerk. Lewis falls seriously ill and misses the autumn term.

1963 - Going Hence

On 15 July Lewis suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma; he receives the last rites on 16 July and wakes. He resigns his Cambridge chair in August. He dies at the Kilns on 22 November, a week before his sixty-fifth birthday, and is buried at Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry, on 26 November.

1964 - Posthumous Books

Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer and The Discarded Image are published.

1973 - Warnie

Warren Lewis dies on 9 April and is buried in his brother’s grave.

2013 - Poets’ Corner

On 22 November, the fiftieth anniversary of his death, a memorial to C. S. Lewis is dedicated in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey.