What military rank did C.S. Lewis hold when he was wounded in World War I?

C.S. Lewis held the rank of second lieutenant when he was wounded in World War I.

Lewis served in the Somerset Light Infantry after receiving military training at Oxford. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and went to France in 1917. In April 1918, he was wounded by shrapnel during fighting near Arras and was sent back to Britain for treatment.

His service left a lasting mark on his writing and friendships. One of his closest wartime companions, Edward “Paddy” Moore, was killed in the conflict. Lewis later wrote about the emotional and spiritual effects of war, although his best-known fiction and apologetic works were produced years afterward.

Lewis was not a career soldier and did not rise through the senior officer ranks. The precise rank matters because biographies sometimes summarize his service simply as that of a British officer, which can obscure his relatively junior commission.