What was C.S. Lewis’s Oxford college from 1917?

C.S. Lewis’s Oxford college from 1917 was University College. He entered the college after serving in the First World War and studying privately with William Kirkpatrick, a demanding tutor who had also taught his brother Warren.

Lewis initially went to Oxford in 1917 and studied at University College. His academic progress was interrupted by military service, and he was wounded at the Battle of Arras in 1918. After the war, he returned to Oxford and completed a highly successful sequence of studies, including classical moderations, Greats, and English.

University College is one of Oxford’s historic colleges, founded in the thirteenth century. Lewis’s later academic post was not at University College: he became a fellow and tutor at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1925. That distinction causes a common mix-up. University College identifies his student connection, while Magdalen College identifies the institution where he spent much of his Oxford teaching career.