English socialite Dorothy (Dolly) Wilde was BOTD in 1895. Born in London, she was the only child of Irish journalist William Wilde and his second wife Sophie Lees. Dolly’s childhood was consumed by the twin disgraces of her father’s alcoholism, and the trial, conviction and imprisonment of her uncle Oscar for gross indecency. After her father’s death in 1899, her impoverished mother sent Dolly to be raised in a convent. During World War One, she travelled to France to become an ambulance driver, and formed a relationship with heiress Joe Carstairs. Remaining in Paris after the war, she had a long-term open relationship with American society hostess Natalie Clifford Barney. Known for her witty conversation and tall tales about her notorious family, Wilde’s friendship circle included Osbert and Edith Sitwell, Djuna Barnes, Janet Flanner, Cecil Beaton, Victor Cunard and Alla Nazimova, with whom she had an affair. She was also an Olympian-level alcoholic and heroin addict, unsuccessfully attempting a series of cures throughout her life, and developing a further addiction to sleeping pills after a stay at a nursing home. Though described as a natural writer and storyteller, her only literary output appears to have been translations of French novels. At the outbreak of World War Two, she returned to England in 1939, living in poverty and supporting herself via a small inheritance. After battling cancer for many years, she died in 1941, possibly of a drug overdose. She was 45.