Florence Augusta Hamilton: mother and mathematician

Florence Augusta was born in Co. Cork on 18 May 1862 to Rev. Thomas Hamilton and Mary Warren. Thomas was an Anglican minister and chaplain in the Royal Navy during the Crimean War. The Hamiltons were descended from a titled Scottish family who were granted land in Co. Down during the plantation. Mary was an outspoken advocate for Irish Home Rule and was the daughter of Sir John Borlase Warren, 4th Baronet. Thomas and Mary had four children, Florence was their second born. While their children were still young, Thomas was appointed as chaplain of the Anglican Holy Trinity Church in Rome. He took his family with him, where they stayed for several years. In 1874, the family returned to Ireland and Thomas became rector of St Mark’s, Dundela. The family moved in to the Rectory at Dundela in east Belfast. St Mark is often represented with an image of a lion, this emblem features on the brass knob on the Rectory’s door.

Education

Florence, or ‘Flora’ as she would become known, lived with her family while pursuing her education. She benefitted hugely from the advancements in female education which had been won by the efforts of other Belfast women Margaret Byers and Isabella Tod. They had successfully campaigned for girls to be included in the Intermediate Education Act in 1878 which meant that girls could take the same exams as boys at the end of secondary education. Results from this exam determined access to higher education and to certain careers. Flora took this exam.

Flora attended Ladies’ Classes at Methodist College Belfast in the early 1880s and enrolled for classes at Queen’s College. Although she was taking classes, she was not allowed to gain any qualifications due to her sex. She clearly excelled in mathematics and won prizes and scholarships at Methodist College. Flora also consistently achieved high marks in her classes at Queen’s College in geometry, algebra, logic and theory of music. However, these achievements were not recognised by the university and she was ineligible to win any prizes.

Byers and Tod were still pressing for equal education in the background to Flora’s studies and they finally convinced Queen’s to admit women to full degrees. However, this was a gradual process. Women were admitted to the faculty of arts in 1882, science in 1883 and medicine in 1889 (mainly due to stubborn ideas about how women’s brains worked and what was suitable for them to study).

The first cohort of female graduates were photographed in 1886. Among these 10 women was Flora.

The first female graduates from Queen’s College. The names ascribed are not wholly accurate and some women’s names are missing. The date of the photograph is also incorrect.

The marvellous story of this photograph and the women in it can be found here in a compelling piece of historical detective work by Dr Shannon Devlin. She suggests that Flora is in the second row on the far left, with her name mysteriously left out altogether.

Flora graduated with a first-class honours in logic and second-class in mathematics. She was 24 at the time of her graduation.

That same year, Flora received a marriage proposal from Albert Lewis. Their families had known each other for years and Flora had actually already turned down an offer from Albert’s brother William. On this occasion, she put Albert off too. Flora had other accomplishments to think about.

For the next few years, it is difficult to pin down exactly what Flora was doing. In 1889 she had a story published ‘The Princess Rosetta’ in the Household Journal in London. Unfortunately no copies survive. In 1890 she was teaching at the Ladies’ University School in Wellington Park. This school advertised their classes to prepare candidates for university exams and intermediate exams. So Flora was clearly keen to help the next generation of women to enter into academic study. She was also continuing her interest in music with violin examinations and public recitals.

Advertisement for Ladies’ University School, Northern Whig, 20 August 1890

Marriage

On 29 August 1894, Flora married Albert Lewis in her father’s church at Dundela. Although she had accepted his proposal (finally) the year before, Flora did not seem wholly convinced. She wrote in a letter to him in June 1893 “I wonder do I love you? I am not quite sure. I know that at least I am very fond of you, and that I should never think of loving anyone else.”

While we have these tantalising glimpses of why Flora might have put Albert off for seven years, namely her being unsure of her feelings towards him, she was clearly busy in those intervening years. At this time, Flora could have tried to follow her passion for mathematics but she would have had a fight on her hands. Many of her co-graduates blazed a trail in their chosen field but they fought hard for every inch of progress. Flora also had the option of getting married and becoming a wife and mother. She could not do both. She could not be a brilliant mathematician and a devoted mother. Perhaps the reason she kept Albert waiting was because Flora recognised this choice would effectively shut the door on her academic aspirations. Choosing Albert, choosing a life as a wife and a mother was her choice to make. She had the luxury of taking her time to make this decision due to her comfortable middle-class background. She was living with her parents until her marriage, she didn’t have to work and she didn’t have to marry for money.

Mother

Flora chose to become a wife and mother. Her first son Warren Hamilton Lewis was born in 1895 and Clive Staples Lewis followed in 1898. What we know about this chapter in her life comes from the memories of her sons. Albert worked as a Belfast court police solicitor, leaving the childrearing to Flora who enjoyed organising holidays for herself and her sons. She taught both boys how to play chess. The Lewis home was full of books and stories, with both Flora and Albert trying their hand at writing. As the eldest son, Warren was sent to public school in England while Clive (or ‘Jack’ as he preferred) stayed at home. Flora supervised his education, teaching him French and Latin.

Florence Augusta Lewis (nee Hamilton)

Jack later remembered a Christmas of his childhood and described his mother as “like most middle-aged ladys, stout, brown hair, spectacles, knitting her chief industry”.

Warren wrote that she was a brilliant mathematician and retained her interest in mathematics until the end of her life.

Unfortunately, Flora fell ill in 1908 and was operated on at home. This is another indicator of the economic comfort of the family that she was only treated at home. She had cancer and was confined to bed for the last months of her life.

Flora died on 23 August 1908. She was 47 years old.

In 2025 a new mural was unveiled on the Belmont Road, East Belfast, a stone’s throw from St Mark’s Dundela. This mural celebrates Flora and her influence on her famous younger son, C.S. Lewis. Her sons also had a stained glass window installed in St Mark’s to memorialise both their parents.

This beautiful floral tribute to Flora will hopefully inspire more people to find out more about the women behind it. Not just as the mother of a famous writer but a woman who, herself, was brilliant. A brilliant mathematician who was born at a time when she could access education but was still confined to the conventional role of wife and mother.