C.S. Lewis was born in Belfast on 29 November 1898.
Lewis was born Clive Staples Lewis at his family home, Little Lea, in the Strandtown area of Belfast, then part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. His father, Albert James Lewis, was a solicitor, and his mother, Florence Augusta Lewis, was the daughter of a Church of Ireland priest.
Lewis spent his early childhood in Belfast before his family moved to England after his mother’s death in 1908. His older brother, Warren Lewis, remained an important companion throughout his life. The brothers later shared interests in literature, mythology, and imaginative storytelling.
Belfast is sometimes confused with Oxford because Oxford became the city most closely associated with Lewis’s adult career. He taught at Oxford for decades and was buried near the city, but his birthplace was Belfast. Lewis later held a professorship at Cambridge as well.