Wilde, William Robert Wills (1815–1876)

Irish eye and ear surgeon, and archaeologist. In 1844, he founded St Mark's Ophthalmic Hospital in Dublin. Wilde was the author of a highly influential appendix to the 1851 Irish Census, published as The Epidemics of Ireland, and also wrote a number of important works on Irish archaeological sites. He married the nationalist poet Jane Francesca Wilde (‘Speranza’) and was the father of Oscar Wilde.

Born in Castlerea, County Roscommon, Wilde studied in London, Berlin, and Vienna, before returning to Dublin to serve as medical commissioner on the Irish Census of 1841 (a role he also filled in 1851). He published papers and textbooks on ocular and aural surgery and invented an ophthalmoscope. His main archaeological writings were The Beauties of the Boyne and the Blackwater 1849, which established him as the leading authority on this area, and Lough Corrib, with Notes on Lough Mask 1867. He also compiled a major catalogue of the holdings of the Royal Irish Academy, and was fluent in Gaelic.

Wilde was honoured for his ophthalmic work by being appointed Queen Victoria's Irish eye surgeon. He also attended King Oskar I of Sweden.