Alice Timeline

I am GOING to lose this otherwise…saved by the Internet!

A timeline of events I consider relevant to the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There books (and to the book I’m writing, Alice’s Adventures in Underland).  Ages approximate.

1832 – Charles born.

1846 – Charles goes to Rugby (age 14)

1849 – Charles leaves Rugby (age 17)

1851 – Charles is accepted at Christ Church; his mother dies two days after he arrives (age 19)

1853 – Alice Liddell born

1855 – Henry Liddell becomes Dean of Christ Church

1856 – Charles gets a lectureship at Christ Church (age 24)

1856 – Charles first sees (Alice) Ellen Terry as a child actress (age 9)

1856 – Charles takes first photos of Liddell girls after going to Deanery to take pictures of scenery (C 26, A 5 or I think 6)

1858 (18 April) to 8 May 1862 – Charles’s diaries missing, probably destroyed by family after death.

1860 – Queen Victoria stays with the Liddells at the Deanery.

1861 – Charles is ordained a deacon, taking a vow of celibacy (age 29)

1861 – [I think] The point where Charles starts to become outspoken in criticism of Dean Liddell

1862 – When Charles’ diaries resume, they are full of prayers to keep him from sin.  Die down by 1872-3.  Seems doubtful that they have anything to do with the Liddell girls, as tone changes completely in diaries when referring to them.

1862 – July 4 boat trip to Godstow  during which the core tale of AAiW is told.  Present:  Charles, Rev. Robinson Duckworth (instructor & governor of Prince Leopold at the time), Lorina (Ina) (13), Alice (10), Edith (9?)

1863 – Mrs. (Lorina) Liddell forces a break with Charles and the family; June 27-29 diary page missing, probably destroyed by family after death. Later note found stating reason for break with Charles is that Mrs. L. thinks he’s using the children as a method of courting either their governess Miss Prickett or Ina; provenance unknown/unprovable. (C31, A 11)  (Alice’s parents had 15 years’ difference in age.)

1864 – Charles gives Alice a handwritten copy of her story (C 32, A 12)

1864 – Charles meets Ellen Terry in person (she’s 17); the same year, she marries a much older man but splits with him after ten months.  Charles stops speaking to her (Victorians were not supposed to divorce) until much later, after she remarried.

1865 – AAiW published after several years of production issues (Charles 33)

1866 – Charles starts writing TtLG toward the end of the year

1868 – Charles’s father dies (Charles 36).

1870 – Mrs. Liddell brings Ina and Alice to be photographed (the girls look miserable in the photos) (C 38, A 18)

1871 – TtLG published (with 1872 publication date) (C 39, A 19)

1872 to 1876 Prince Leopold studies at Christ Church; at some point, he and Alice seem to be romantically attached, but the Queen gets him married to a German princess instead.

1874 – Penned parts of the Snark while caring for Charlie Wilcox, a cousin, who was dying of tuberculosis.

1876 – Hunting of the Snark published (Charles 44)

1876 – Edith dies (age 22) of peritonitis or measles

1880 – Alice marries Reginal Hargreaves (C 48, A 28)

1880 – Charles stops taking photos.

1881 – Charles stops teaching (C 49)

1882 – Leopold married.

1884 – Leopold dies (he has hemophilia).

1889 – Charles writes Sylvie and Bruno (57)

1898 – Charles dies of the flu and pneumonia, just before his 66th birthday

1928 – Ellen Terry dies

1932 – Alice Hargreaves visit the US for to commemorate Charles’s 100th birthday (age 80)

1934 – Alice dies (82)