Which regiment did C.S. Lewis serve in 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 in the Somerset Light Infantry. He served on the Western Front and was wounded at the Battle of Arras in 1918. His wartime experiences later influenced the tone and imagery of some of his writing, although his books are not straightforward military memoirs.

Lewis returned to Oxford after the war and resumed his studies. The conflict had a lasting effect on his generation, including many of the writers and scholars around him. His close friend Paddy Moore was killed in the war, and Lewis maintained a long relationship with Moore’s mother afterward.

The regiment’s name is sometimes confused with other British and Irish units because Lewis was born in Belfast and had an Irish family background. His wartime unit, however, was the Somerset Light Infantry, an English regiment that later became part of the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry.