William Charles Kingsbury Wilde was an Irish journalist and poet of the Victorian era. He was the older brother of Oscar Wilde.
Occupation
journalist, poet, literary critic
Citizenship
Ireland
Born
September 26, 1852, 1852
Died
March 13, 1899, 1899
Overview
William Charles Kingsbury Wilde (26 September 1852 – 13 March 1899) was an Irish journalist and poet of the Victorian era. He was the older brother of Oscar Wilde.
Background
Willie was the oldest son born into an Anglo-Irish family, at 21 Westland Row, Dublin, to Sir William Wilde and his wife Jane Francesca Wilde (née Elgee) (her pseudonym being 'Speranza'). Their second son, Oscar, was born in the same house in 1854. Jane Wilde was a successful writer, being a poet for the revolutionary Young Irelanders in 1848 and a lifelong Irish nationalist. Sir William was Ireland's leading Oto-Ophthalmologic (ear and eye) surgeon and was knighted in 1864 for his services to medicine. William also wrote books on archaeology and folklore. He was a renowned philanthropist, and his dispensary for the care of the city's poor, in Lincoln Place at the rear of Trinity College, Dublin, was the forerunner of the Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital, now located at Adelaide Road.
In June 1855, the family moved to 1 Merrion Square in a fashionable residential area, where Wilde's sister, Isola, was born in 1856. Here, Lady Wilde held a regular Saturday afternoon salon with guests including Sheridan le Fanu, Samuel Lever, George Petrie, Isaac Butt and Samuel Ferguson.
