He was the second-born son of Irish playwright Oscar Wilde and Constance Lloyd, and had a brother, Cyril.

Because of this, and to reduce the risk of the boys being identified as Wilde’s sons, Vyvyan was relocated to a Jesuit school in Monaco.

He converted to Catholicism and subsequently attended Stonyhurst College in England, a public school also managed by Jesuits.

[6] After Constance died in 1898, her relatives sought legal counsel to prevent Oscar Wilde from seeing his sons again.

Holland resumed his study of law at the age of 22, and was admitted to the Bar of England and Wales by the Inner Temple in 1912.

At the beginning of the Second World War, he was offered a position as a translator and editor for the BBC, a post he held for six years.