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A major UK library has honoured deceased Irish writer Oscar Wilde by issuing anew a library pass in his honor, over a century after his initial got cancelled following his legal sentencing for homosexual acts.

The celebrated author and dramatist was excluded from the library's reading room in the late 19th century over his charge for engaging in homosexual relationships, which was a criminal offence at the time.

The new card, which will be collected by his descendant, writer his grandson, on Thursday, is intended to "recognize the wrongs and great pain" the writer endured, the institution said.

The grandson said the reissued pass is a "lovely gesture of forgiveness" and "I'm sure his spirit will be touched and delighted".

The decision to withdraw the author's access for the reading room - then the London institution - was documented without explanation in the trustees' minutes for June 15, 1895.

The writer had been in jail for several weeks at the time after being handed a two-year prison sentence with hard labour.

Wilde was found guilty after he was defeated in a defamation case against the Marquess of Queensberry, who had accused him of being homosexual after learning that his offspring, Bosie, was Wilde's lover.

The library regulations at the time said anyone found guilty of a crime should have their pass cancelled.

'Letter from prison meant so much'

The British Library contains handwritten drafts of some of the author's most famous works including "The Importance of Being Earnest", "An Ideal Husband", A Woman of No Importance and "Lady Windermere's Fan".

Its collection also includes De Profundis, the correspondence he penned to Bosie from Reading Gaol.

Mr Holland, the only living descendant of the writer, will receive the reissued pass at a ceremony at the venue on what would have been his ancestor's 171st birth anniversary.

Commenting on the occasion, Mr Holland said he felt both "proud" of his relative and somewhat weighted by the responsibility of managing his legacy.

"People will so often write in to me and say, 'I cannot tell you how much your grandfather's De Profundis meant to me'" he explained.

"The letter ends on an optimistic tone... expressing his intent to resume his work after release".

"And people have written to me saying, 'In a moment of terrible depression about my own life I read De Profundis, and I just wanted you to know that your grandfather's letter from prison meant so much to me'".

The library chair, head of the British Library, described Wilde as "a foremost 19th-century literary personality".

She stated that by reinstating his reader pass, "our aim is to commemorate Wilde's legacy while recognizing the grave injustices he suffered due to his legal case".

She continued that they were "delighted" to receive his descendant - who is the writer of a new book, After Oscar: The Legacy of a Scandal - to accept the pass on his part.