T.W.H. Crosland

Thomas William Hodgson Crosland (July 21, 1865 or 1868 - 1924), was a British author, poet, journalist and friend of royalty.

Biography
He was born in Leeds on July 21, 1865 or 1868.

He was an associate and friend of Lord Alfred Douglas, who was Oscar Wilde's lover. The bitter feud between Lord Alfred's father the Marquess of Queensberry and his son resulted in Wilde sueing the Marquess for libel at Douglas’s urging. Subsequently Wilde was charged with homosexuality after the Marquess produced evidence of Wilde’s behaviour as justifying the libel. In 1895 Wilde was found guilty and imprisoned. In 1914 Robbie Ross, Oscar Wilde's literary executor and rival for Wilde’s affection, charged Crosland with criminal libel, plus writs for criminal conspiracy and perjury against Douglas and Crosland jointly. Crosland was found not guilty, though the judge did say that acquital would not imply that Ross was guilty of any offence.

In 1913 the author Arthur Ransome recalled the rather endearing story of his (Croslands) first arrival in London from Yorkshire, by road, pushing a perambulator that was shared by manuscripts and a baby. This was at the trial of Ransome and others for libelling Douglas in Ransome’s 1912 book on Wilde; Crosland and the impecunious Douglas had hoped for substantial damages but lost. The judge was rather scathing about Douglas’s behavior in the box, and the jury found that the words complained of were a libel but were true. Ransome’s biographer referred to Crosland as a shady associate of Douglas, and Ross’s biographer calls him a narrow-minded bigot and a right-wing Tory. Crosland wrote a negative review and criticism of Wilde’s De Profundis in 1912, and ghost-wrote Douglas’s memoir Oscar Wilde and Myself in 1914.

Thomas was a humanitarian who frequently wrote in his poems about the impoverished and sick and unemployed, especially caring about returned soldiers in World War I. Battling many illnesses, he died in 1924, leaving a wife and son.

Publications

 * The Unspeakable Scot (1902)
 * The Wild Irishman (1905)
 * The collected poems of T.W.H. Crosland (1917)