Frederick William Calcut Paxford (5 August 1898,

Fifield, Oxfordshire Fifield is a village and civil parish about north of Burford in Oxfordshire. The western boundary of the parish forms part of the county boundary with Gloucestershire. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 240. Archaeology I ...

– 10 August 1979,

Churchill, Oxfordshire Churchill is a village and civil parish about southwest of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire in the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Since 2012 it has been part of the Churchill and Sarsden joint parish council area, sharing a parish co ...

) was

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...

's gardener and handyman at

The Kilns The Kilns, also known as C. S. Lewis House, is the house in Risinghurst, Oxford, England, where the author C. S. Lewis wrote all of his Narnia books and other classics. The house itself was featured in the Narnia books.Puddleglum Puddleglum is a fictional character in the children's fantasy series ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' by C. S. Lewis. Puddleglum appears as a principal character in ''The Silver Chair'', and is mentioned briefly at the end of '' The Last Battle''. Pud ...

the Marsh-Wiggle in ''

The Silver Chair ''The Silver Chair'' is a children's fantasy novel by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1953. It was the fourth published of seven novels in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956); it is volume six in recent editions, which are seq ...

'' in the ''

Chronicles of Narnia ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' is a series of seven high fantasy novels by British author C. S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes and originally published between 1950 and 1956, ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' has been adapted for radio, telev ...

'': "an inwardly optimistic, outwardly pessimistic, dear, frustrating, shrewd countryman of immense integrity." Paxford, an

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

countryman, was born the same year as Lewis and had been gassed as a soldier during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He had been working at The Kilns when Lewis bought the property in 1930 and hired him as a gardener and

factotum Factotum may refer to: *A handyman, employed as a servant * ''Factotum'' (novel), a 1975 novel by Charles Bukowski * ''Factotum'' (film), a 2005 film adaptation of the novel * Factotum (arts organisation), an arts organisation based in Belfast * fa ...

. Paxford spent several years clearing the grounds and establishing an orchard and vegetable garden. He acted as a

chauffeur A chauffeur is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or limousine. Originally, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to speciali ...

to Lewis, who could not drive, and did the shopping for the household with a great sense of economy. He sang hymns in a loud voice, much to the annoyance of the neighbours, "but it was the incessant gloominess of his predictions, especially about the weather, that caught people's attention and led to his employment as the model for Puddleglum the Marsh-Wiggle in The Silver Chair."

Douglas Gresham Douglas Howard Gresham (born November 10, 1945) is an American British stage and voice-over actor, biographer, film producer, and executive record producer. He is one of the two stepsons of C. S. Lewis. Early life Gresham was born in Ne ...

, Lewis's stepson, wrote of Paxford: A lifelong bachelor, Paxford died in 1979 aged 81 in his home in Churchill. His reminiscences about Lewis (along with those of others) have been published in a collected volume.David Graham (Ed)'' We Remember C.S.Lewis: Essays & Memoirs'' . Also published in the ''Canadian C.S.Lewis Journal'', No 55, Summer 1986 In the 1993 movie '' Shadowlands'', Fred Paxford is played by

Walter Sparrow Walter Leonard Sparrow (22 January 1927 – 31 May 2000) was an English film and television actor best known for his appearance as Duncan in the 1991 film '' Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'' starring Kevin Costner. Born in Eltham, London i ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paxford, Frederick 1898 births 1979 deaths People from Oxfordshire English gardeners C. S. Lewis British Army soldiers British Army personnel of World War I Military personnel from Oxfordshire