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Cyril Holland

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Cyril Holland
Cyril Wilde with his mother Constance in 1889
Born
Cyril Wilde

(1885-06-05)5 June 1885
Died9 May 1915(1915-05-09) (aged 29)
Neuve-Chapelle, France
Cause of deathKilled in action
NationalityBritish
Parent(s)Oscar Wilde
Constance Lloyd

Cyril Holland (born Cyril Wilde, 5 June 1885 – 9 May 1915) was the older of the two sons of Oscar Wilde and Constance Lloyd and brother to Vyvyan Holland.

Life

According to Vyvyan Holland’s accounts in his autobiography, Son of Oscar Wilde, Oscar was a devoted and loving father to his two sons and their childhood was a relatively happy one.[1] However, after Wilde's imprisonment for gross indecency in 1895, Constance chose to take on the surname Holland for both the boys and herself. She took the boys to Switzerland and then enrolled them in an English-speaking school in Germany. Oscar Wilde never saw either of his sons again.

From 1899 to 1903 Cyril attended Radley College.[2] After leaving school he became a Gentleman Cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant, Royal Field Artillery, on 20 December 1905. He was promoted to Lieutenant on 20 December 1908 and served in the United Kingdom until he was posted to India, where he served from September 1911 until 1914 with No. 9 Ammunition Column, RFA at Secunderabad. He was promoted to Captain on 30 October 1914.[3]

Death

When the First World War broke out, Captain Holland was posted back to the Continent and took part in the battle for Neuve-Chapelle, where he was killed by a German sniper on 9 May 1915, during the Battle of Festubert.[4][5] He is buried at St Vaast Post Military Cemetery, Richebourg-l'Avoué.[6]

References

  1. ^ "A Life of Concealment". Time Magazine. 27 September 1954. Retrieved 8 August 2008.
  2. ^ Radley Register, 1847-1933
  3. ^ List of Officers of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, 1862-1914
  4. ^ TomFolio.com: AN IDEAL HUSBAND, Wilde, Oscar, H.A.S. Beane Books
  5. ^ CWGC :: Casualty Details
  6. ^ CWGC :: Casualty Details
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