Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/529

 sincerity of which is overlaid by an excess of rhetoric Thenceforth he wrote nothing. He adopted the name Sebastian Melmoth—Melmoth from the romance of Maturin, a connection of his mother, Lady Wilde, Sebastian suggested by the arrows on the prison dress. He had contributed some information to the 1892 edition of 'Melmoth the Wanderer.'

After visiting Sicily and Rome in the spring of 1900, Wilde died of cerebral meningitis at the Hôtel d'Alsace on 30 Nov. 1900. He received the last rites of the Roman catholic church. Shortly before his death he expressed his conviction that his 'moral obliquity was due to the fact that his father had prevented him from entering the Roman church while he was at Oxford, adding, 'The artistic side of the church and the fragrance of its teaching would have curbed my degeneracies.' He was buried in the Bagneux cemetery on 3 Dec., his tombstone bearing the inscription: 'Ci-git Oscar Wilde, poete et auteur dramatique.' His wife had died in 1896. Two sons—Cyril, born in 1885, and Vivian in 1886—survived both parents.

 WILLIS, GEORGE HARRY SMITH (1823–1900), general, colonel of the Middlesex regiment, of Stretham Manor, Cambridgeshire, only son of Lieutenant George Brander Willis, royal artillery, of Sopley Park, Hampshire, who had served in the Walcheren and Peninsular campaigns, was born at Sopley Park on 11 Nov. 1823. Educated privately he obtained a commission on 23 April 1841 as ensign in the 77th foot, then stationed at Malta. His further commissions were dated: lieutenant 30 Aug. 1844, captain 27 Dec. 1850, brevet major 12 Dec. 1854, brevet, lieutenant-colonel 6 June 1856, major unattached 19 Dec. 1856, brevet colonel 26 June 1862, major-general 29 May 1875, antedated to 28 June 1868, lieutenant-general 8 May 1880, general 11 May 1887.

Willis served with his regiment in the Mediterranean, the West Indies, and North America, and accompanied it to the Crimea in 1854, was present at the affair of Bulganac and McKenzie's farm, at the battles of Alma (20 Sept.) and of Inkerman (5 Nov.), where his regiment distinguished itself, Willis leading the grenadier company in the charge. He did one hundred tours of duty in the trenches before Sebastopol, and took part in the repulse of several sorties. On 13 April 1855 he was appointed deputy-assistant quartermaster-general on Lord Raglan's staff, and was present at the capture of the quarries, the unsuccessful attack of the Redan on 18 Juno the battle of the Tchernaya in August, and the fall of Sebastopol on 8 Sept. On 11 May 1866 he was appointed assistant quartermaster-general to the 4th division until the return of the troops to England.

For his services in the Crimea he was mentioned in despatches (London Gazette 24 April 1855), received the war medal with three clasps, the Sardinian and Turkish medals, the 5th class of the legion of honour and of the Medjidie, and brevets of major and lieutenant-colonel.

Willis went to Algeria with the French after the Crimean war, and n-turned home in 1857, when he formed the second battalion of the 6th foot (Warwickshire), with which he served as major until his appointment to be assistant quartermaster-general at Gibraltar on 25 May 1858. He was transferred to Malta as assist ant adjutant-general on 20 Feb. 1859, and remained there fire years. From 22 Feb. 1866 he served for five years as assistant quartermaster-general on the staff of the southern district, was made a companion of the order of the Bath. military division, on 20 May 1871, and served on the headquarters staff at the war office as assistant quartermaster-general from 25 Aug. 1873 until his promotion to be major-general.

Willis commanded the northern military district for three years from 1 April 1878, and in 1882 was selected to command the first division in the Egyptian expedition under Sir Garnet (afterwards Viscount) Wolseley. He was in command of the troops at the actions of El Magfar and Tel-el-Mahuta, at the capture of Mahsameh, at the second battle of Kassassin on 9 Sept., and was wounded in the assault of the lines of Tel-el-Kebir (13 Sept.) For his services he was mentioned in despatches (ib. 8 and 26 Sept., 6 Oct., and 2 Nov. 1882), received the thanks of both houses of parliament, the medal with clasp and the bronze star, the second class of the Turkish order of the Osmanieh, and was made a K.C.B. 