What was C.S. Lewis’s rank when he served in the British Army during World War I?

C.S. Lewis served as a second lieutenant in the British Army during World War I.

Lewis volunteered for military service while studying at Oxford and received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Somerset Light Infantry. He served on the Western Front and experienced combat in France. In 1918, he was wounded during the fighting at the Battle of Arras and was later sent back to Britain for recovery.

Lewis was twenty years old when he went to France. His wartime experience affected his friendships, outlook, and later writing, although it is misleading to treat his fiction as a simple memoir of trench life. The war also separated him from many contemporaries and contributed to the seriousness with which he approached suffering, mortality, and belief.

Readers sometimes confuse Lewis’s military rank with a later academic title or with the ranks held by fictional characters in his books. Second lieutenant was a junior commissioned officer rank, and it describes his wartime service rather than his long career as a literary scholar and author.