Cyril Holland

{{Short description|Son of Oscar Wilde (1885–1915)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Infobox person |name=Cyril Holland |image=Constance Wilde with son Cyril 1889.jpg |caption=Cyril Wilde with his mother Constance in 1889 |birth_name=Cyril Wilde |birth_date={{birth date|1885|6|5|df=y}} |death_date={{death date and age|1915|5|9|1885|6|5|df=y}} |death_place=Festubert, France |death_cause = Killed in action |father=Oscar Wilde |mother=Constance Wilde }}

'''Cyril Holland''' ({{ne|'''Wilde'''}}; 5 June 1885 – 9 May 1915) was the elder of the two sons of Oscar Wilde and Constance Lloyd and brother to Vyvyan Holland.

==Life== According to his brother Vyvyan Holland's accounts in his autobiography, ''Son of Oscar Wilde'' (1954), Oscar was a devoted and loving father to his two sons. Their childhood was a relatively happy one.<ref name=time>{{cite news|title=A Life of Concealment|date=27 September 1954|work=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,820321-1,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090212185348/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,820321-1,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=12 February 2009 |accessdate=8 August 2008}}</ref> However, after Wilde's well-publicized trials in Britain, conviction in 1895, and imprisonment for gross indecency, their mother Constance took their children to Europe.

She began using the surname Holland for both the boys and herself in order to protect them from public scrutiny. She relocated with the boys to Switzerland and enrolled them at Neuenheim College, an English-speaking boarding school in Heidelberg, Germany.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://histclo.com/Bio/w/wilde/bw-kids.html|title=biographies : Oscar Wilde children Vyvyan Wilde, Vivian Holland Cyril Wilde Cyril Holland|work=histclo.com|access-date=17 March 2016|archive-date=10 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151110123133/http://histclo.com/bio/w/wilde/bw-kids.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Oscar Wilde died in 1900; neither of his sons saw him again after he went to prison. When he was released, he went to France and never lived in the UK again.

From 1899 to 1903 Cyril attended Radley College, a private school then in Berkshire.<ref>''Radley Register, 1847-1933''</ref> After ending school, he became a gentleman cadet at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.

Holland 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 for nearly three years. 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.<ref>''List of Officers of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, 1862-1914''</ref>

==Death== When the First World War began, Captain Holland was posted to British forces on the Continent. He participated in the battle for Neuve-Chapelle, where he was killed in France by a German sniper on 9 May 1915, during the Battle of Festubert.<ref>[http://www.tomfolio.com/bookdetailssu.asp?b=4005&m=347 TomFolio.com: Introduction, Wilde, Oscar. ''An Ideal Husband,'' H.A.S. Beane Books]</ref><ref name="cwgc">[https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/570123 CWGC :: Casualty Details], Commonwealth War Graves Commission</ref> His grave is maintained by the War Graves Commission in St Vaast Post Military Cemetery, Richebourg-l'Avoué, France.<ref name="cwgc"/>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [https://histclo.com/bio/w/wilde/bw-kids.html Wilde children]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holland, Cyril}} Category:1885 births Category:1915 deaths Category:British Army personnel of World War I Category:British military personnel killed in World War I Category:English people of Irish descent Category:Oscar Wilde Category:Place of birth missing Category:People educated at Radley College Category:Royal Field Artillery officers Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Category:Deaths by firearm in France Cyril