Warren Hamilton (W. H.) Lewis (June 16, 1895 – April 9, 1973) was an Irish
British ArmyThe British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England and Scotland and...
officer and historian, best known as the brother of the writer and academic
C. S. LewisClive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as Jack, was an Irish-born British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist...
. Warren Lewis was a supply officer with the Royal Army Service Corps in the British Army during and after
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
. After retiring in 1932 to live with his brother in
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
, he was one of the founding members of the
InklingsThe Inklings was an informal literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford, England, for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. Its more regular members included J. R. R. "Tollers" Tolkien, C. S. "Jack" Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams, Christopher...
, an informal Oxford literary society.
Warren Hamilton (W. H.) Lewis (June 16, 1895 – April 9, 1973) was an Irish
British ArmyThe British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England and Scotland and...
officer and historian, best known as the brother of the writer and academic
C. S. LewisClive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as Jack, was an Irish-born British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist...
. Warren Lewis was a supply officer with the Royal Army Service Corps in the British Army during and after
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
. After retiring in 1932 to live with his brother in
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
, he was one of the founding members of the
InklingsThe Inklings was an informal literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford, England, for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. Its more regular members included J. R. R. "Tollers" Tolkien, C. S. "Jack" Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams, Christopher...
, an informal Oxford literary society. He wrote on
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
history, and served as his brother's secretary for the later years of C. S. Lewis's life.
Brother of C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis referred to his older brother, Warren (“Warnie”), as “my dearest and closest friend.” The lifelong bond formed as the boys played together in their home, Little Lea, on the outskirts of Belfast, writing and illustrating stories for their created world called "Boxen" (a combination of India and a previous incarnation called "Animal-Land"). In 1908 their mother died from cancer and as their father grieved her, C. S. ("Jack") and Warren Lewis were left with only each other for comfort and support. Shortly after their mother's death, Jack was sent across the channel to join Warren Lewis at an English boarding school called
WynyardWynyard School was a school in Watford, UK, which was attended by C.S. Lewis and his brother Warren.Soon after the school closed, the headmaster suffered a breakdown and was committed to an insane asylum....
in Watford, just northwest of London, where they both suffered under an insane headmaster named Robert Capron. Warren had been taken there by his mother Flora on May 10, 1905. In 1909, Warren Lewis transferred to
Malvern CollegeMalvern College is a coeducational British Public or independent school, founded in 1865. It is located in Malvern, Worcestershire.The Good Schools Guide called the school a "Traditional co-ed rural public school with a surprising number of aces up its sleeve."- History :The school opened in...
in Worcestershire (Mid-West England) and was followed there by his brother a few years later. Warren Lewis completed his education at Malvern in 1913.
He took private studies with W. T. Kirkpatrick for four months in preparation for the army entrance exam, beginning on September 10, 1913, and finished 21st among over 201 candidates taking the exam, entitling him to a "prize cadetship" with which he entered the
Royal Military AcademyThe Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, in south-east London, was a British Army military academy for the training of commissioned officers of the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. It later also trained officers of the Royal Corps of Signals and other technical corps.The RMA was founded in 1741...
at Sandhurst on February 4, 1914. This enabled him a reduction in the cost of attendance. He was appointed a commission on September 29 as a second lieutenant in the
Royal Army Service CorpsThe Royal Army Service Corps was a former corps of the British Army. It was responsible for land, coastal and lake transport; air despatch; supply of food, water, fuel, and general domestic stores such as clothing, furniture and stationery ; administration...
after only nine months of training (due to wartime need; the normal course of study was eighteen months to two years), left Sandhurst on October 1, and was sent to France on November 4, 1914 to serve with the 4th Company 7th Divisional Train British Expeditionary Force. On November 10, 1918, the war ended, and the next day the Armistice was signed.
Warren Lewis served in such postings as Belgium (1919), Aldershot, England (November 1919), Sierra Leone (March 9, 1921 to March 23, 1922), Colchester, England (October 4, 1922 to December 1925), Woolwich, England (January 1925 until April 1927), and China (two tours of duty, the first beginning on April 11, 1927 in Kowloon, South China, then later in Shanghai, and ending in April 1930; the second beginning on October 9, 1931 and ending on December 14, 1932). After retiring with the rank of captain from 18 years of active service on December 21, 1932 (he was granted a temporary rank of major when recalled to active service on September 4, 1939), he took up residence at The Kilns (
HeadingtonHeadington is a suburb of Oxford, England. It lies on top of Headington Hill overlooking the city in the river valley below. The life of the large residential area congregates around London Road, the main thoroughfare from London to Oxford....
, Oxford), where he lived until after his brother’s death in 1963.
Warren Lewis returned to belief in
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
five months before his brother’s conversion, in 1929. He was a frequent participant in weekly meetings of the
InklingsThe Inklings was an informal literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford, England, for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. Its more regular members included J. R. R. "Tollers" Tolkien, C. S. "Jack" Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams, Christopher...
and recorded the flavour of them in many of his diary entries. During the 1930s, the Lewis brothers undertook eight annual walking tours of up to fifty miles (80 km), which Warren years later recalled with fondness, saying, "And jolly good fun they were too." Warren Lewis's 40-year battle with alcoholism went through periods of success and failure and his drinking binges concerned and worried his brother.
Writings
Upon his first retirement in 1932, Warren Lewis edited the Lewis family papers. During his final retirement he turned to a subject of his lifelong interest: the history of 17th-century France. As W. H. Lewis, he published seven books on France during the times of Louis XIV, including
The Splendid Century: Some Aspects of French Life in the Reign of Louis XIVLouis XIV , popularly known as the Sun King , was King of France and of Navarre His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days, and is the longest documented reign of any European monarch.Louis began personally governing France after the death...
and
Levantine Adventurer: The travels and missions of the Chevalier d'Arvieux, 1653–1697. An excerpt from
The Splendid Century appeared first in
Essays Presented to Charles Williams, a volume edited by his brother as an informal
FestschriftIn academia, a Festschrift or Festschrifts, is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during his or her lifetime. The term, borrowed from German, could be translated as celebration publication or celebratory writing...
to benefit the widow of Williams.
After C. S. Lewis died in 1963, Warren edited the first published edition of his brother's letters (1966), adding a memoir of his brother as a preface to the letters. Later editions of these letters were edited by
Walter HooperWalter McGehee Hooper is a trustee and literary advisor of the estate of C.S. Lewis. Born in Reidsville, North Carolina, he earned an M.A. in education and was an instructor in English at the University of Kentucky in the early 1960s. As a visitor to England, he served briefly as Lewis's...
.
Before his death, Warren Lewis deposited many of the Lewis family papers, including surviving papers of C. S. Lewis and himself, in the Marion E. Wade Collection of
Wheaton CollegeWheaton College is a private Evangelical Protestant, coeducational, liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago in the United States. Some regard it as the finest of the Evangelical colleges with respect to its reputation of academic rigor.Wheaton College is listed in...
. In 1982, selections from Warren Lewis's diary were published under the title "Brothers and Friends".
Publications
- The Lewis Papers: Memoirs of the Lewis Family. Privately printed in 1933.
- "The Galleys of France." In Essays Presented to Charles Williams. Oxford University Press. Oxford. 1947.
- The Splendid Century: Some Aspects of French Life in the Reign of Louis XIV. Eyre & Spottiswoode. London. 1953.
- The Sunset of the Splendid Century: The Life and Times of Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Duc de Maine, . Eyre & Spottiswoode. London. 1955.
- Assault on Olympus: The Rise of the House of Gramont between 1604 and 1678. Andre Deutsch. London. 1958.
- Louis XIV: An Informal Portrait. Andre Deutsch. London. 1959.
- The Scandalous Regent: A Life of Philippe, Duc d'Orleans, , and of his family. Andre Deutsch. London. 1961.
- Levantine Adventurer: The Travels and Missions of the Chevalier d'Arvieux, . Andre Deutsch. London. 1962.
- Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon. B.T. Batsford. London. 1964.
- Letters of C. S. Lewis (as editor). Geoffrey Bles Ltd. London. 1966.