Cyril Holland

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Cyril Holland (5th June, 1885 – May 9, 1915) (né Wilde) was the first son of Oscar Wilde and Constance Lloyd and brother to Vyvyan Holland.

From Vyvyan’s own 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] Nevertheless, after Oscar’s infamous downfall, Constance chose to take on the surname Holland for both the boys and herself (the Holland name having been part of her own family heritage.) After Constance’s death in 1898, her relatives sought legal counsel to prevent Oscar Wilde from seeing his children again.

From 1899 – 1903, Holland attended Radley College.^[2] After leaving school he became a Gentleman Cadet at the Royal Military College, 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 UK until he was posted to India, where he served from September 1911 until 1914, with No. 9 Ammunition Column, RFA at Secunderabad, India in August 1914. He was promoted to Captain, on 30 October 1914.^[3]

When World War I broke out, he was then posted back to Europe and took part in the battle for Neuve Chapelle, where he was killed by a German sniper on May 9, 1915. ^{[4] [5]} He is buried at St. Vaast Post Military Cemetery, Richebourg-L'Avoue.[1]

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