William Wilde

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Sir William Robert Wills Wilde (1815–April 19, 1876), today best known for being the father of Oscar Wilde, was a man of prominence in his own day. Wilde was Ireland's leading ear and eye surgeon and he also wrote books on history, archaeology and folklore particularly concerning his native Ireland.

William Wilde received his initial education at the Elphin Diocesan School in Elphin, County Roscommon and subsequently earned his medical doctorate in 1837. He was awarded a knighthood for his medical contributions involving the British census and ran his own hospital in Dublin. He served as an oculist to Queen Victoria after he was knighted. He became Sir William Wilde, while his wife became Lady Wilde. In his medical practice Wilde was assisted by his natural son Henry Wilson, who had been trained in Dublin,Vienna, Heidelberg, Berlin, and Paris. Wilson’s presence enabled Wilde to visit Scandinavia, where he received an honorary degree from Uppsala, and was welcomed in Stockholm by Retzius, among others. King Karl XV of Sweden conferred on him the Nordstjärneorden (Order of the North Star). Wilde married the poet Jane Francesca Agnes Elgee in 1851, also known as Speranza. It was his second marriage. The couple had two sons: Willie and Oscar Wilde, and a daughter, Isola Francesca. William also had three children by an earlier marriage.

Publications

The Narrative of a Voyage to Madeira, Teneriffe, and Along the Shores of the Mediterranean, 1840.
The Boyne and the Blackwater, 1849
Lough Corrib, its Shores and Islands, first published in 1867. This book is now out of copyright and is available on the World wide Web [link]

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