William Wilde

Sir William Robert Wills Wilde MD, FRCSI, (March 1815 – 19 April 1876) was an Irish eye and ear surgeon, as well as an author of significant works on medicine, archaeology and folklore, particularly concerning his native Ireland. He was the father of Oscar Wilde.

Early life and career

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 (d. c.1844), and 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 and the physician 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. 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. Porpoises 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. 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.

Sir William Wilde, 1st Baronet

Sir William Wilde, 1st Baronet (ca. 1611 – 23 November 1679) was an English judge and politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1660.

Wilde was the eldest son of William Wilde, vintner of Bread Street, London. He was a student of Clifford's Inn and of Inner Temple in 1630. In 1637 he was called to the bar. He was recorder of London in 1659. On 27 Mar 1660 he was elected Member of Parliament for the City of London in the Convention Parliament.

On 13 Sep 1660, Wilde was created a baronet. He was appointed King's Serjeant on 10 November 1661. He was made one of the judges of the court of common pleas in 1668 and advanced to become a justice of the King's Bench on 21 January 1672. He was described as a "grave and venerable judge" and was deprived of his office a few months before his death because he disbelieved the evidence of Bedlow in the "Popish Plot".

Wilde was succeeded by his son Sir Felix Wilde, 2nd Baronet.

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