ODIGW Lookup Please

[Max]

Would someone with access to ODIGW please do a look-up for me?

The details are Captain C.Holland RFA, died 9/5/1915 (buried at St Vaast Military Cemetary)

Thanks in anticipation

Andy

[CROONAERT]

Andy ,

The only further info. given in "Officers Died" is that his name is Cyril and he was Killed in Action.

Dave.

[Simon_Fielding]

This is Oscar Wilde's son who took his mother's maiden name after his father's disgrace.

Killed by a sniper and served with the Royal Artillery is memory serves...

Simon

[Max]

Cheers Dave

Simon, I think you might be right. I'll have to do some more digging.

Andy

[Simon_Fielding]

There's a memoir by his brother Vivian Holland called 'Son of Oscar Wilde' which goes into the circumstances of Cyril's death in some more detail - I have a copy somewhere in the loft - I'll try to dig it out. Holland seemed to imply that his brother took a series of unnecessary risks, perhaps something of a death wish due to the ongoing stigma of his father's conviction.

Sad story. Remember that Dicken's grandson died at Combles and Darwin's son advised the War Office on gas equipment (I think).

Simon

[Simon_Fielding]

Max - some stuff I collected earlier on Cyril Holland:

Simon: Captain Cyril Holland, attended St. Peter's College, Radley from 1899 to 1902 and then attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery in 1905 and served with that regiment until his death. At the beginning of WW1 he was a Lieutenant in the RFA serving with the 9th Ammunition Column in India. He was killed in action near Neuville-St. Vaast on 9 May 1915 and buried in the St. Vaast Post Military Cemetary at Richebourg-L'Avoue. Dick Flory

In Memory of

C HOLLAND

Captain

Royal Field Artillery

who died on

Sunday, 9th May 1915

ST. VAAST POST MILITARY CEMETERY, RICHEBOURG-L'AVOUE, Pas de Calais, France

I. A. 1.

The cemetery lies near the village of Richebourg-l'Avoue which is 9 kilometres north-east of Bethune. From Bethune follow the D.171 toward Armentieres and progress onto the D.166 proceeding into the outskirts of Richebourg. Take a left turning into Rue des Charbonniers for approximately 2 kilometres and the cemetery is on the right hand side.

Richebourg-L'Avoue village remained in British hands from the Autumn of 1914 to the 9th April, 1918, though the front line was within 1.6 kilometres of it. It was recovered in September, 1918. The strong point from which the cemetery was named was in turn named from the hamlet of St. Vaast, between the village of Richebourg-St. Vaast and Goix-Barbee. It stands in an old orchard between two farm buildings, where a trench tramway had its terminus and a Dressing Station was established. It was begun in May, 1915, at the time of the Battle of Festubert, and used by fighting units and Field Ambulances until July, 1917. In April and May, 1918, the Germans buried 90 of their men at the South-East end, and in September and October, 1918, 18 further British dead were buried in Plot V. Eleven Portuguese soldiers buried here in May-July, 1917, have been removed to the Portuguese Military Cemetery. There are now nearly 800, 1914-18 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, a small number are unidentified. Special memorials are erected to three soldiers from the United Kingdom, buried in the cemetery, whose graves cannot now be traced. The cemetery covers an area of 4,080 square metres and is enclosed by a flint wall.

While attending the military preparatory school Radley, Cyril found his niche. In addition to serving as prefect, he was an outstanding athlete, winning awards for his rowing, track, and swimming prowess. In 1903, he entered the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich where he also excelled in rowing and track. Joining the Army immediately after leaving Woolwich, he was stationed with the Royal Field Artillery regiment in India. A solitary figure, Cyril traveled when on leave, visiting architectural monuments and art galleries, which his fellow officers found strange.

At the beginning of World War I, he desperately wanted to go into battle, though his regiment had orders to remain in India. Sacrificing nine years of seniority, he transferred to the Meerut division, a calvary regiment destined for France. Unbeknownst to either brother, Vyvyan and Cyril were stationed three miles away from one another.

On 9 May 1915, during the second battle of Neuve Chapelle, Cyril Holland was killed in a duel with a German sniper, dying with glory as he would have wished. In a letter written to Vyvyan in June 1914, Cyril explained his life's mission:

I became obsessed with the idea that I must retrieve what had been lost. By 1900, it had become my settled object in life....All these years my great incentive has been to wipe that stain away; to retrieve, if may be, by some action of mine, a name no longer honoured in the land. The more I thought of this, the more convinced I became that, first and foremost, I must be a man. There was to be no cry of decadent artist, of effeminate aesthete, of weak-kneed degenerate. That is the first step. For that I have laboured; for that I have toiled....This has been my purpose for sixteen years. It is so still. I have often fallen away. I have despaired, I have cursed my fate and mocked at the false gods. It is my purpose still. I am no wild, passionate, irresponsible hero. I live by thought, not by emotion. I ask nothing better than to end in honourable battle for my King and Country.

http://vassun.vassar.edu/~kekawano/wilde/f...mily/cyril.html

Moving stuff!

Cheers

Simon

[Max]

Hello Simon

Thanks for the info. It really is moving seeing a young man trying to throw off the perceived shame that his father had brought on him. I found this earlier:

"Wilde was an affectionate husband to begin with, and a

loving father always; after his disaster it was the knowledge that he would

never see his sons again, as much as anything, that broke his heart. "I was

always a good father to both my children," he wrote from prison. "I love

them dearly and was dearly loved by them, and Cyril was my friend."

All very sad.

Can you confirm whether Cyril was serving at the time of his death with the Cavalry or RFA.

Best regs

Andy