Lewis matriculated as an undergraduate at University College in 1917 but soon joined E Company, No. 4 Officer Cadet Battalion, stationed at Keble College. Here he received training before being sent to the Western Front. He returned to Oxford in 1919 and went on to achieve a double first in Literae Humaniores, the study of the Classical languages and literature, followed by another first in English Language and Literature.
University College first year undergraduates, 1917.
University College Freshmen, Trinity term 1917. C.S. Lewis is in the back row on the right.
Magdalen College Chattels
Photograph of E Company, 1917
Shortly after his arrival in Oxford, Lewis joined E Company, No. 4 Officer Cadet Battalion, stationed at Keble College, where he received training before being sent to the Western Front.
Permission to reproduce given by the Warden, Fellows, and Scholars of Keble College, Oxford. Photography by Colin Dunn (Scriptura Ltd)
Letter to C.S. Lewis from President Warren, 4 November 1922.
Before undertaking a degree in English Language and Literature, Lewis set out to become an academic philosopher. While Lewis’s application for a Fellowship by Examination at Magdalen was unsuccessful, President Warren praised his essay on ‘The Hegemony of Moral Value.’
Magdalen College Archives, MC/MS1026/III/3
Lewis’s pipe and pipe case, with his tobacco jar bearing the University College arms
Lewis was a lifelong pipe smoker. During tutorials his head would usually be wreathed in smoke, so that students found it difficult to discern his reaction to their essays as they read them aloud.
Permission to reproduce given by the estate of Walter Hooper
Programme for the Martlets Society, Michaelmas Term 1920
The Martlets was a literary gathering at which scholars and younger fellows read papers. Lewis served as secretary and then president in 1919. In 1921, he attended a joint meeting of the Martlets with Pembroke College Cambridge.
Permission to reproduce given by University College, Oxford