Cyril Holland | |
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 Cyril Wilde with his mother Constance in 1889 | |
| Born | Cyril Wilde (1885-06-05)5 June 1885 |
| Died | 9 May 1915(1915-05-09) (aged 29) Festubert, France |
| Cause of death | Killed in action |
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Cyril Holland (né Wilde; 5 June 1885 – 9 May 1915) was the elder of the two sons ofOscar Wilde andConstance Lloyd and brother toVyvyan Holland.
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.[1] 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 toSwitzerland and enrolled them atNeuenheim College, an English-speaking boarding school inHeidelberg,Germany.[2] 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 attendedRadley College, a private school then inBerkshire.[3] After ending school, he became agentleman cadet at theRoyal Military Academy, Woolwich.
Holland was commissioned as a2nd lieutenant,Royal Field Artillery, on 20 December 1905. He was promoted tolieutenant on 20 December 1908 and served in theUnited Kingdom for nearly three years. He was posted toIndia, where he served from September 1911 until 1914 with No. 9 Ammunition Column, RFA atSecunderabad. He was promoted tocaptain on 30 October 1914.[4]
When theFirst World War began, Captain Holland was posted to British forces on the Continent. He participated in the battle forNeuve-Chapelle, where he was killed in France by a Germansniper on 9 May 1915, during theBattle of Festubert.[5][6] His grave is maintained by theWar Graves Commission in St Vaast Post Military Cemetery,Richebourg-l'Avoué, France.[6]
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