Wilde, Sir William

Wilde, Sir William (1815–76), born near Castlerea, Co. Roscommon, an internationally famous eye and ear surgeon, medical historian, statistician, and archaeologist. Wilde qualified in medicine in Dublin in 1837 and later studied in London and Vienna. After returning to Dublin, he established St Mark's eye and ear hospital in 1844, which in 1897 became the Royal Victoria eye and ear hospital. In addition to practising as a surgeon and publishing a major textbook on aural surgery (1853), Wilde also worked on both the 1841 and 1851 censuses. His medical appendix to the 1851 census is a pioneering work in medical history and statistics. He also wrote accounts of his travels in the eastern Mediterranean (1839) and Austria (1845), and published archaeological studies of the Boyne river (1849) and Lough Corrib (1867) areas. Wilde had several illegitimate children, but in 1851 married Jane Francesca Elgee (see Wilde, Lady Jane). They had two sons, William (1852–99), a Dublin barrister, and Oscar (1854–1900), the playwright and poet.

Elizabeth Malcolm