Editing William Wilde

{{short description|Irish surgeon and writer}}
{{other uses}}
{{EngvarB|date=February 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix      = Sir
| name                  = William Wilde
| honorific_suffix      = [[Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland|FRCSI]]
| image                 = Sir William Wilde.jpg
| caption               = 
| birth_name            = William Robert Wills Wilde
| birth_date            = March 1815
| birth_place           = [[Castlerea]], [[County Roscommon]], [[History of Ireland (1801-1923)|Ireland]]
| death_date            = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1876|4|19|1815|3}}
| death_place           = [[Dublin]], Ireland
| occupation            = Surgeon, [[Otorhinolaryngology|otolaryngologist]], [[Ophthalmology|ophthalmologist]]
| spouse                = {{marriage|[[Jane Wilde|Jane Elgee]]|1851}}
| children              = 6, including [[Willie Wilde|Willie]] and [[Oscar Wilde|Oscar]]
| othername             =
}}

'''Sir William Robert Wills Wilde''' [[Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland|FRCSI]] (March 1815 – 19 April 1876) was an Irish [[Otology|oto]]-[[Ophthalmology|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]].<ref>{{cite book |last=De Breffny |first=Brian |author-link= |date=1983 |title=Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopedia |url= |location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson |page=249|isbn=}}</ref>

==Early life and career==
[[File:William Wilde young.jpg|thumb|left|Sketch of William Wilde by J.H. Maguire, 1847]]
William Wilde was born at Kilkeevin, near [[Castlerea]], in [[County Roscommon]], the youngest of the three sons and two daughters of a prominent local medical practitioner, Thomas Wills Wilde, and his wife, Amelia Flynne (d. c.1844).<ref name="James McGeachie 1876">McGeachie, James (2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/printable/29403 'Wilde, Sir William Robert Wills (1815–1876)'] in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press.</ref> His family were members of the [[Church of Ireland]]. He was descended from a Dutchman, Colonel de Wilde, who went to Ireland with [[William III of England|King William of Orange]]'s [[Battle of the Boyne|invasion army]] in 1690, and numerous [[Anglo-Irish people|Anglo-Irish]] ancestors. He received his initial education at the Elphin Diocesan School in [[Elphin, County Roscommon]]. In 1832, Wilde was bound as an apprentice to [[Abraham Colles]], the pre-eminent Irish surgeon of the day, at Dr Steevens' Hospital in [[Dublin]]. He was also taught by the surgeons James Cusack and [[Sir Philip Crampton, 1st Baronet|Sir Philip Crampton]] and the physician [[Sir Henry Marsh, 1st Baronet|Sir Henry Marsh]]. Wilde also studied at the private and highly respected school of anatomy, medicine, and surgery in Park Street (later Lincoln Place), Dublin.<ref name="James McGeachie 1876" /> In 1837, he earned his medical degree from the [[Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland]]. In the same year, Wilde embarked on an eight-month cruise to the [[Holy Land]] with a recovering patient, visiting various cities and islands throughout the [[Mediterranean]]. [[Porpoise]]s were flung on board the ship, ''Crusader'', and Wilde dissected them. Taking notes, he eventually composed a two-volume book on the nursing habits of the creatures.<ref name = "Barbara Belford">Belford, Barbara (2000) ''Oscar Wilde: A Certain Genius'', Random House, Inc. {{ISBN|0679457348}}</ref> Among the places he visited on this tour was [[Egypt]]. In a tomb, he found the mummified remains of a dwarf and salvaged the torso to bring back to Ireland. He also collected embalmed ibises.

Once back in Ireland, Wilde published an article in the ''[[Dublin University Magazine]]'' suggesting that one of the "[[Cleopatra's Needle, London|Cleopatra's Needle]]s" be transported to England (eventually in 1878 one of the Needles was transported to London, and in 1880 [[Cleopatra's Needle (New York)|the other one]] was brought to New York's Central Park).<ref name = "Barbara Belford" /> In 1873 he was awarded the Cunningham Gold Medal by the [[Royal Irish Academy]].<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.libraryireland.com/biography/SirWilliamWilde.php|title= Sir William Robert Wills Wilde|publisher= Library Ireland|access-date = 31 October 2014}}</ref> Wilde was a founder member of the [[Irish nationalism|Irish nationalist]] [[Home Government Association]], established by his Trinity College Dublin colleague [[Isaac Butt]] as the precursor to the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Golden |first1=J.J. |title=The Protestant Influence on the Origins of Irish Home Rule, 1861–1871 |date=2013 |publisher=The English Historical Review |location=London |pages=1483–1516 |edition=Volume 128, Issue 535 |url=https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article/128/535/1483/392864}}</ref>

==Recognition==
He ran his own hospital, St Mark's Ophthalmic Hospital for Diseases of the Eye and Ear, in [[Dublin]] and was appointed to serve as Oculist-in-ordinary to [[Queen Victoria]]. At one point, Wilde performed surgery on the father of another famous Irish dramatist, [[George Bernard Shaw]].

Wilde had a very successful medical practice and was assisted in it by his natural son, Henry Wilson, who had been trained in Dublin, [[Vienna]], [[Heidelberg]], Berlin, and Paris. Wilson's presence enabled Wilde to travel and he visited [[Scandinavia]], where he received an honorary degree from [[Uppsala University|Uppsala]], and was welcomed in [[Stockholm]] by [[Anders Retzius]], among others. [[Charles XV of Sweden|King Karl XV of Sweden]] conferred on him the Nordstjärneorden ([[Order of the Polar Star|Order of the North Star]]). In 1853, he was appointed Surgeon Occulist in Ordinary to the Queen in Ireland, the first position of its kind, probably created for him.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Vm4aAQAAIAAJ&dq=Dublin%20University%20Magazine%2085&pg=PA581 The Dublin University Magazine, Volume 85 (1875)]</ref>

He was awarded a [[knighthood]] in a ceremony at [[Dublin Castle]] on 28 January 1864<ref>''The Irish Times'', 29 January 1864.</ref> more for his involvement with the Irish census than for his medical contributions, although he had been appointed medical commissioner to the Irish census in 1841. In 1845, he became editor of the ''[[Irish Journal of Medical Science|Dublin Journal of Medical Science]]'', to which he contributed many articles.

[[File:20160802 William Wilde RVEEH.jpg|thumb|A marble bust of William Wilde on the main staircase of the [[Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital]], Dublin, Ireland]]

There is a plaque at 2 Merrion Square, Dublin dedicated to Wilde.<ref>{{cite web |title=William Wilde, brown plaque |url=https://openplaques.org/plaques/4498 |website=openplaques.org}}</ref>

==Marriage and children==
On 12 November 1851, Wilde married the poet [[Jane Wilde|Jane Francesca Agnes Elgee]], who wrote and published under the name of Speranza. The couple had two sons: William ([[Willie Wilde|Willie]]) and [[Oscar Wilde|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.<ref name="Ellmann (1988:13)">Ellmann, Richard (1988) ''Oscar Wilde'', Vintage Books, New York, {{ISBN|978-0-394-75984-5}}</ref> Emily and Mary both died in 1871 following a Halloween party at which their dresses accidentally caught fire.<ref>Zapata, Mariana.  [http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-strange-secret-behind-the-tragic-deaths-of-oscar-wildes-halfsisters "The Strange Secret Behind the Tragic Deaths of Oscar Wilde’s Half-Sisters"], [[Atlas Obscura]] (21 October 2016).</ref>

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.

[[File:sirwilliamwilde.jpg|thumb|right|Sir William Wilde]]

==Later life==
[[File:Will-Wilde memorial-cropped.JPG|right|thumb|Memorial to Sir William Wilde and his wife located in [[Mount Jerome Cemetery]], Dublin]]
Wilde's reputation suffered when Mary Travers, a long-term patient of his and the daughter of a colleague, claimed that he had raped her two years earlier.<ref>Fryer, Jonathan (2005) ''Wilde''. Haus Publishing. {{ISBN|1-904341-11-X}}</ref> She wrote a pamphlet crudely parodying Wilde and Lady Wilde as Dr and Mrs Quilp, and portraying Dr Quilp as the rapist of a female patient anaesthetised under chloroform. She distributed the pamphlets outside the building where Wilde was about to give a public lecture. Lady Wilde complained to Mary's father, Robert Travers, which resulted in Mary bringing a [[libel]] case against her. Mary Travers won her case but was awarded a mere [[Farthing (British coin)|farthing]] in damages by the jury. Legal costs of £2,000 were awarded against Lady Wilde. The case was the talk of all Dublin, and Wilde's refusal to enter the witness box during the trial was widely held against him as ungentlemanly behaviour.

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 [[Lough Corrib]] in [[Connemara]], [[County Galway]]. He died aged 61 in 1876,<ref>de Vere White, Terence (1967) ''The Parents of Oscar Wilde''. London: Hodder & Stoughton</ref> and is buried in [[Mount Jerome Cemetery]] in Dublin.

==Publications==
* ''Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira, Teneriffe, and Along the Shores of the Mediterranean'', 1840.
* Austria:  Its Literary, Scientific, and Medical Institutions.  With notes upon the present state of science , and a guide to the hospitals and sanatory establishments of Vienna, 1843
* ''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', [[Irish Builder|''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==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20030207161255/http://galway.net/galwayguide/history/wrwilde/ Online text of ''Lough Corrib'']
* [http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/68/5/664 Wilde in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=Vm4aAQAAIAAJ&dq=Dublin%20University%20Magazine%2085&pg=PA570 Portrait of Sir William R. Wilde in the Dublin Magazine, Vol 85 (1875)]

{{Oscar Wilde|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilde, William}}
[[Category:1815 births]]
[[Category:1876 deaths]]
[[Category:Oscar Wilde]]
[[Category:Irish Anglicans]]
[[Category:Irish people of Dutch descent]]
[[Category:19th-century Anglo-Irish people]]
[[Category:Irish folklorists]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish historians]]
[[Category:Irish surgeons]]
[[Category:19th-century Irish archaeologists]]
[[Category:Protestant Irish nationalists]]
[[Category:People from Castlerea]]
[[Category:Burials at Mount Jerome Cemetery and Crematorium|Wilde, Sir William]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland]]
[[Category:Irish ophthalmologists]]
[[Category:Medical doctors from County Roscommon]]
[[Category:Scholars and academics from County Roscommon]]