Who was Arthur Conan Doyle?
Novelist. Creator of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.
Date and Place of Birth:
22nd May 1859, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Family Background:
The son of Charles Doyle a Civil Servant from
Ireland and an alcoholic and Mary Foley. He was one of ten children.
His grandfather was John Doyle a famous caricaturist.
Education:
At home and then a local school in Edinburgh.
Jesuit Preparatory School in Hodder, Lancashire. Stonyhurst, a Jesuit
Secondary School nearby. University of Edinburgh. Helped fund his
course by working as a surgeon on ships such as the "Hope"
which was then bound for the Arctic and the "Mayumba"
bound for West Africa where he nearly died of Typhoid).
Chronology/Biography of Arhtur Conan Doyle:
Whilst studying he worked as a medical assistant
to Dr Richardson of Sheffield which only lasted three weeks. He
then moved to Shropshire working for Dr Elliot and then to Birmingham
where he was treated like a son by Dr Reginald Hoare and his family.
1882: Set up as
a Doctor in Plymouth with a fellow student from Edinburgh Dr George
Budd but it was unsuccessful and the two did not get on. Doyle then
set up in Em Grove, Southsea near Portsmouth but had very few patients
and therefore little money. He subsidised his income writing detective
stories. His first story was accepted by Chambers Journal in Edinburgh.
1887: Published
the first of his Sherlock Holmes story "A Study in Scarlet"
in Becton's Christmas Annual and had enough money to give up medicine.
Holmes was reputedly based on one of his medical school lecturers
Doctor Joseph Bell. His Short Stories about Holmes where published
in the "Strand Magazine" from then on. Became a member
of the Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society.
1890: Went to Vienna
to study opthalmology.
1891: Moved back
to London. Holmes stories published in the Strand Magazine.
1893: Holmes is
killed off in "The Final Problem" and the reading public
were horrified. His pregnant wife was weak with tuberculosis and
so they went to Egypt to effect a cure. Unfortunately war broke
out between the British and the Dervishes but not to be outdone
Conan-Doyle become a temporary war correspondent for "The Westminster
Gazette" newspaper.
1894: Moved back
to England to live in Hindhead in surrey.
1897: Meets Jean
Leckie and continues a platonic relationship during his wife's illness.
1899-1902: Served
as a doctor in the Boer War with a hospital paid for and organised
buy John Langman.
1902: Knighted for
his contribution to the war and appointed Deputy-Lieutenant of Surrey.
1903: Forced to
revive Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson.
1912: Introduces
his character Professor Challenger in "The Lost World".
1913: Began to talk
about the need for a Channel Tunnel.
1914: Attended the
meeting of writers called by the Liberal politician Charles Masterman
who wanted to form a Writer's Propaganda Bureau at the start of
the First World War. Conan-Doyle wrote the pamphlet "To Arms!"
as his contribution. He also wrote many articles about the war for
the newspaper the "Daily Chronicle". Although well into
his fifties he served as a private throughout the war in the Crowborough
Company of the Sixth Royal Sussex regiment.
1916: Became a convinced
Spiritualist a cause to which he would spend the rest of his life
often working with his friend Sir Oliver Lodge.
1917: (October)
Death of his son Kingsley Conan-Doyle. He died after being wounded
and contracting pneumonia.
1922: Declared the
"Cottingley Fairy" fake photographs to be genuine and
was ridiculed in the press.
1929: Becomes ill
after a tour of Scandinavia.
Written Works:
- 1887: "Micah
Clarke".
- 1890: "The
Sign of Four". "The White Company".
- 1896: "Brigadier
Gerard". "Rodney Stone".
- 1902: "The
Hound of the Baskervilles". "The War in South Africa".
- 1906: "Sir
Nigel"
Marriage:
1885 to Louise Hawkins the sister of one of his
patients. (died 1906) 1907 to Jean Leckie.
Places of Interest:
BIRMINGHAM:
Aston, Blue Plaque at the former home of Doctor
Hoare.
DEVON:
DARTMOOR (Location for the Hound of the Baskervilles)
HAMPSHIRE:
Member of the Portsmouth Literary and Scientific
Society).
Bush Villas, Elm Grove, Southsea. (home).
LONDON:
Sherlock Holmes Pub and Museum, Northumberland
Avenue.
Baker Street, (221b now insurance offices) Museum.
Montague Place. (Site of his Rooms).
2 Upper Wimpole Street. (site of his rooms).
SURREY:
House at Hindhead.
SUSSEX:
Crowborough. (lived with his second wife).
YORKSHIRE:
Masongill Cottage, Mother's home and site of
his marriage.
Date and Place of Death:
7th July 1930, Crowborough, Sussex, England.
Age at Death:
70.
Site of Grave:
All Saint’s Churchyard, Minstead, Hampshire,
England.
