Stonyhurst College. Photo: Nico Morgan, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stonyhurst_college.jpg)
College/University
Career
Gallery of Vyvyan Holland
British Broadcasting Corporation. Photo: Suicasmo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Broadcasting_House_20160816.jpg)
British Broadcasting Corporation. Photo: Suicasmo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Broadcasting_House_20160816.jpg)
Vyvyan Beresford Holland was a British author, translator, poet, and linguist, and the younger son of Oscar Wilde. He served in the British Army during the First World War, worked as a BBC translator and editor during the Second World War, and wrote Son of Oscar Wilde, a major memoir of his family.
Background
Holland was born Vyvyan Oscar Beresford Wilde on November 3, 1886, at Tite Street in Chelsea, London. He was the second son of the Irish writer Oscar Wilde and Constance Lloyd, and the younger brother of Cyril Holland. His childhood was disrupted by his mother's death in 1898 and by the consequences of his father's imprisonment and public disgrace in the 1890s.
After his mother died, Holland and his brother were taken to Switzerland and later educated in an English-speaking school in Germany. He subsequently adopted the surname Holland, distancing himself from the family name Wilde during a period when his father's reputation remained publicly controversial. His memoir Son of Oscar Wilde later became an important personal account of Oscar Wilde's family life and its aftermath.
Education
Holland was educated at Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit school in Lancashire founded in the sixteenth-century English Catholic tradition and known for combining classical education with Catholic formation. He later studied law at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, beginning in 1905, but left Cambridge in 1907 after becoming dissatisfied with his studies.
He resumed legal studies at the age of twenty-two and was admitted to the English Bar through the Inner Temple in 1912. The Inns of Court were the professional institutions responsible for legal education and admission to practice in England, linking formal legal training with apprenticeship and advocacy.
Holland began his professional life in law. After resuming his studies, he was called to the Bar of England and Wales by the Inner Temple in 1912. He also began writing poetry and short stories, developing the literary interests that later became central to his career.
During the First World War, Holland received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Interpreters Corps. He later transferred to 114 Battery of the 25th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, and served until his demobilization on July 27, 1919. His wartime service was recognized with appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
Holland subsequently worked as an author and translator, producing books about Oscar Wilde and contributing translations and introductions to works associated with his father. His translation of Salomé was published by the Folio Society in 1957, accompanied by illustrations by Frank Martin. The work formed part of the continuing effort to present Wilde's French play to English-language readers.
At the beginning of the Second World War, Holland joined the British Broadcasting Corporation as a translator and editor. He held that position for six years, when the BBC was expanding its international and foreign-language broadcasting in response to the demands of wartime communication.
In 1947, Holland and his wife travelled to Australia and New Zealand. They lived in Melbourne from 1948 to 1952 while his wife delivered lectures on fashionable dress in nineteenth-century Australia. Holland continued writing and speaking about Oscar Wilde, and in 1954 published Son of Oscar Wilde, his memoir of his father and family. He died in London on October 10, 1967.
Holland produced Son of Oscar Wilde, a memoir that drew on his experience as Oscar Wilde's son and became a significant personal source for the Wilde family's life before and after the writer's trials.
Holland translated and introduced works associated with Oscar Wilde, including the 1957 Folio Society edition of Salomé, helping make Wilde's French play accessible to English-language readers.
(Holland's English translation of Oscar Wilde's French pla...)
1957
Religion
Holland was Catholic. Catholicism is a Christian tradition centered on the authority of the Church, sacramental worship, and continuity with the apostolic church. In Britain during Holland's lifetime, Catholic religious life existed within a society shaped by the historical division between Protestant establishment and Catholic communities.
Membership
Holland was admitted to the Inner Temple, one of the four Inns of Court that govern admission and professional life at the English Bar. His connection with the Inn reflected his formal legal training and qualification as a barrister.
Admitted to the English Bar.
Inner Temple
,
United Kingdom
1912
Interests
Holland had a documented interest in Oscar Wilde's literary legacy, biography, and visual presentation, as well as in translation, poetry, limericks, and fashion history.
Writers
Oscar Wilde
Connections
Holland was the younger son of Oscar Wilde and Constance Lloyd and the younger brother of Cyril Holland. His relationship with Oscar Wilde became the central subject of his memoir Son of Oscar Wilde, published in 1954.
Holland married Violet Mary Craigie in 1914; she died in 1918. He later married Dorothy Thelma Helen Besant in 1943. Their son, Merlin Holland, was born in London in 1945 and later became a writer and editor concerned with Oscar Wilde's life and work. Holland was also a friend of Robert Ross, the writer and literary executor who worked to preserve and promote Wilde's reputation.
Father:
Oscar Wilde
Irish writer, poet, and dramatist.
Mother:
Constance Lloyd
Holland's mother and Oscar Wilde's wife.
Brother:
Cyril Holland
Holland's elder brother, who was killed during the First World War.
Wife:
Violet Mary Craigie
Holland's first wife, who died in 1918.
Wife:
Dorothy Thelma Helen Besant
Holland's second wife, whom he married in 1943.
Son:
Merlin Holland
Writer and editor, and Holland's only child.
Friend:
Robert Ross
Writer and literary executor associated with the preservation and promotion of Oscar Wilde's reputation.
Open Library: Vyvyan Beresford Holland
Bibliographic author record listing Holland's books, including Son of Oscar Wilde, Oscar Wilde and His World, Drink and Be Merry, and An Evergreen Garland.
