What was the name of the British Army regiment in which C.S. Lewis served during World War I?

C.S. Lewis served in the Somerset Light Infantry during World War I.

Lewis volunteered for military service while studying at Oxford and was commissioned into the Somerset Light Infantry. He served on the Western Front in France, where he experienced trench warfare and was wounded in April 1918 during the German spring offensive.

His wartime experiences influenced his later writing, although he generally avoided presenting himself as a heroic soldier. The death of his close friend Paddy Moore also deeply affected him. Lewis returned to Oxford after the war and resumed his studies, eventually building the academic career that led to his fellowship at Magdalen College.

The regiment’s formal title was the Somerset Light Infantry (Prince Albert’s). It is easy to confuse Lewis’s unit with Irish or Oxfordshire regiments because he was born in Belfast and studied at Oxford. His wartime regiment, however, was the Somerset Light Infantry.