William Wilde
Sir William Wilde Ireland | |
---|---|
Died | 19 April 1876 Dublin, Ireland | (aged 61)
Occupation(s) | Surgeon, otolaryngologist, ophthalmologist |
Spouse | |
Children | 6, including Willie and Oscar |
Sir William Robert Wills Wilde FRCSI (March 1815 – 19 April 1876) was an Irish oto-ophthalmologic surgeon and the author of significant works on medicine, archaeology and folklore, particularly concerning his native Ireland. He was the father of Oscar Wilde.
Early life and career
William Wilde was born at Kilkeevin, near
Once back in Ireland, Wilde published an article in the
Recognition
He ran his own hospital, St Mark's Ophthalmic Hospital for Diseases of the Eye and Ear, in
Wilde had a very successful medical practice and was assisted in it by his natural son, Henry Wilson, who had been trained in Dublin,
He was awarded a
There is a plaque at 2 Merrion Square, Dublin dedicated to Wilde.[6]
Marriage and children
On 12 November 1851, Wilde married the poet Jane Francesca Agnes Elgee, who wrote and published under the name of Speranza. The couple had two sons: William (Willie) and Oscar, and a daughter, Isola Francesca, who died in childhood.
In addition to his children with his wife, Sir William Wilde was the father of three children born out of wedlock before his marriage: Henry Wilson, born in 1838, and Emily and Mary Wilde, born in 1847 and 1849, respectively, of different parentage to Henry. Sir William acknowledged paternity of his illegitimate children and provided for their education, but they were reared by his relatives rather than with his wife and legitimate children.[7] Emily and Mary both died in 1871 following a Halloween party at which their dresses accidentally caught fire.[8]
From 1855 to his death in 1876, William Wilde lived at No. 1 Merrion Square, now the headquarters of American College Dublin. The building is named Oscar Wilde House after William Wilde's son, who also lived at the address from 1855 until 1878.
Later life
Wilde's reputation suffered when Mary Travers, a long-term patient of his and the daughter of a colleague, claimed that he had seduced her two years earlier.
From this time onwards, Wilde began to withdraw from Dublin to the west of Ireland, where he had started in 1864 to build what became Moytura, his house overlooking
Publications
- Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira, Teneriffe, and Along the Shores of the Mediterranean, 1840.
- The beauties of the Boyne and its tributary the Blackwater, 1849.
- The closing years of Dean Swift's life, 1849.
- The Epidemics of Ireland, 1851.
- Practical observations on aural surgery and the nature and treatment of diseases of the ear, 1853.
- Lough Corrib, its Shores and Islands, first published 1867, republished 2002.
- 'The Early Races of Mankind in Ireland', The Irish Builder, 1874.
- Selected writings of Speranza and William Wilde, edited by Eibhear Walshe, 2020.
Books about
- Victorian Doctor: the Life of Sir William Wilde, T.G. Wilson(Methuen, London, 1942.)
References
- ^ a b McGeachie, James (2004) 'Wilde, Sir William Robert Wills (1815–1876)' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press.
- ^ ISBN 0679457348
- ^ "Sir William Robert Wills Wilde". Library Ireland. Retrieved 31 October 2014.
- ^ The Dublin University Magazine, Volume 85 (1875)
- ^ The Irish Times, 29 January 1864.
- ^ "William Wilde, brown plaque". openplaques.org.
- ISBN 978-0-394-75984-5
- ^ Zapata, Mariana. "The Strange Secret Behind the Tragic Deaths of Oscar Wilde’s Half-Sisters", Atlas Obscura (21 October 2016).
- ISBN 1-904341-11-X
- ^ de Vere White, Terence (1967) The Parents of Oscar Wilde. London: Hodder & Stoughton