Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the characterSherlock Holmes in 1887 forA Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes andDr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are milestones in the field ofcrime fiction.
Doyle was a prolific writer. In addition to the Holmes stories, his works include fantasy and science fiction stories aboutProfessor Challenger, and humorous stories about the Napoleonic soldierBrigadier Gerard, as well as plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction, and historical novels. One of Doyle's early short stories, "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" (1884), helped to popularise the mystery of the brigantineMary Celeste, found drifting at sea with no crew member aboard.
Name
Doyle is often referred to as "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle" or "Conan Doyle", implying that "Conan" is part of acompound surname rather than a middle name. However, his baptism entry in the register ofSt Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, gives "Arthur Ignatius Conan" as his given names and "Doyle" as his surname. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather.[1] The catalogues of theBritish Library and theLibrary of Congress treat "Doyle" alone as his surname.[2]
Steven Doyle, publisher ofThe Baker Street Journal, wrote: "Conan was Arthur's middle name. Shortly after he graduated from high school he began using Conan as a sort of surname. But technically his last name is simply 'Doyle'."[3] When knighted, he wasgazetted as Doyle, not under the compound Conan Doyle.[4]
Early life
Portrait of Doyle byHerbert Rose Barraud, 1893Title page from Arthur Conan Doyle's thesis
Doyle was born on 22 May 1859 at 11 Picardy Place,Edinburgh, Scotland.[5][6] His father,Charles Altamont Doyle, was born in England, ofIrish Catholic descent, and his mother, Mary (née Foley), was Irish Catholic. His parents married in 1855.[7] In 1864, the family scattered because of Charles's growing alcoholism. The children were temporarily housed across Edinburgh. Arthur lodged withMary Burton, the aunt of a friend, at Liberton Bank House on Gilmerton Road, while studying at Newington Academy.[8]
In 1867, the family came together again and lived in squalid tenement flats at 3Sciennes Place.[9] Doyle's father died in 1893, in theCrichton Royal,Dumfries, after many years of psychiatric illness.[10][11] Beginning at an early age, throughout his life Doyle wrote letters to his mother. Many of them were preserved.[12]
Supported by wealthy uncles, Doyle was sent to England, to theJesuitpreparatory schoolHodder Place,Stonyhurst in Lancashire, at the age of nine (1868–70). He went on toStonyhurst College, which he attended until 1875. While Doyle was not unhappy at Stonyhurst, he said he did not have any fond memories of it because the school was run on medieval principles: the only subjects covered were rudiments,rhetoric,Euclidean geometry,algebra, and the classics.[13] Doyle commented later in his life that this academic system could be excused only "on the plea that any exercise, however stupid in itself, forms a sort of mental dumbbell by which one can improve one's mind".[13] He found the school harsh, noting that, instead of compassion and warmth, it favoured the threat of corporal punishment and ritual humiliation.[14]
From 1875 to 1876, he was educated at the Jesuit schoolStella Matutina inFeldkirch, Austria.[9] His family decided that he would spend a year there in order to perfect his German and broaden his academic horizons.[15] He was raisedCatholic but later rejected the faith and became anagnostic.[16] One source attributed his drift away from religion to the time he spent in the less strict Austrian school.[14] He also later became aspiritualistmystic.[17]
Doyle was the doctor on theGreenlandwhalerHope of Peterhead in 1880.[24] On 11 July 1880, John Gray'sHope and David Gray'sEclipse met up with theEira andLeigh Smith. The photographer W. J. A. Grant took a photograph aboard theEira of Doyle along with Smith, the Gray brothers, and ship's surgeon William Neale, who were members of the Smith expedition. That expedition exploredFranz Josef Land, and led to the naming, on 18 August, of Cape Flora,Bell Island, Nightingale Sound, Gratton ("Uncle Joe") Island, and Mabel Island.[25]
After graduating with Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery (M.B. C.M.) degrees from the University of Edinburgh in 1881, he was ship's surgeon on the SSMayumba during a voyage to the West African coast.[9] He completed hisDoctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree (an advanced degree beyond the basic medical qualification in the UK) with a dissertation ontabes dorsalis in 1885.[26][27]
In 1882, Doyle partnered with his former classmate George Turnavine Budd in a medical practice inPlymouth, but their relationship proved difficult, and Doyle soon left to set up an independent practice.[9][28] Arriving inPortsmouth in June 1882, with less than £10 (£1300 in 2023[29]) to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove,Southsea.[30] The practice was not successful. While waiting for patients, Doyle returned to writing fiction.
Doyle was a staunch supporter of compulsory vaccination and wrote several articles advocating the practice and denouncing the views ofanti-vaccinators.[31][32]
In early 1891, Doyle embarked on the study ofophthalmology in Vienna. He had previously studied at the Portsmouth Eye Hospital in order to qualify to perform eye tests and prescribe glasses. Vienna had been suggested by his friend Vernon Morris as a place to spend six months and train to be an eye surgeon. But Doyle found it too difficult to understand the German medical terms being used in his classes in Vienna, and soon quit his studies there. For the rest of his two-month stay in Vienna, he pursued other activities, such asice skating with his wife Louisa and drinking with Brinsley Richards of the LondonTimes. He also wroteThe Doings of Raffles Haw.
After visitingVenice andMilan, he spent a few days in Paris observing Edmund Landolt, an expert on diseases of the eye. Within three months of his departure for Vienna, Doyle returned to London. He opened a small office and consulting room at 2 Upper Wimpole Street, or 2 Devonshire Place as it was then. (There is today aWestminster City Council commemorative plaque over the front door.) He had no patients, according to his autobiography, and his efforts as an ophthalmologist were a failure.[33][34][35]
Doyle initially struggled to find a publisher. His first work featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson,A Study in Scarlet, was written in three weeks when he was 27 and was accepted for publication byWard Lock & Co on 20 November 1886, which gave Doyle £25 (equivalent to £3,500 in 2023) in exchange for all rights to the story. The piece appeared a year later in theBeeton's Christmas Annual and received good reviews inThe Scotsman and theGlasgow Herald.[9]
Holmes was partially modelled on Doyle's former university teacherJoseph Bell. In 1892, in a letter to Bell, Doyle wrote, "It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes ... round the centre of deduction and inference and observation which I have heard you inculcate I have tried to build up a man",[36] and in his 1924 autobiography, he remarked, "It is no wonder that after the study of such a character [viz., Bell] I used and amplified his methods when in later life I tried to build up a scientific detective who solved cases on his own merits and not through the folly of the criminal."[37]Robert Louis Stevenson was able to recognise the strong similarity between Joseph Bell and Sherlock Holmes: "My compliments on your very ingenious and very interesting adventures of Sherlock Holmes. ... can this be my old friend Joe Bell?"[38] Other authors sometimes suggest additional influences—for instance,Edgar Allan Poe's characterC. Auguste Dupin, who is mentioned disparagingly by Holmes inA Study in Scarlet.[39] Dr. (John) Watson owes his surname, but not any other obvious characteristic, to a Portsmouth medical colleague of Doyle's, Dr. James Watson.[40]
Sherlock Holmes statue in Edinburgh, erected opposite the birthplace of Doyle, which was demolishedc. 1970
A sequel toA Study in Scarlet was commissioned, andThe Sign of the Four appeared inLippincott's Magazine in February 1890, under agreement with the Ward Lock company. Doyle felt grievously exploited by Ward Lock as an author new to the publishing world, and so, after this, he left them.[9] Short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes were published in theStrand Magazine. Doyle wrote the first five Holmes short stories from his office at 2 Devonshire Place.[41]
Doyle's attitude towards his most famous creation was ambivalent.[40] In November 1891, he wrote to his mother: "I think of slaying Holmes, ... and winding him up for good and all. He takes my mind from better things." His mother responded, "You won't! You can't! You mustn't!"[42] In an attempt to deflect publishers' demands for more Holmes stories, he raised his price to a level intended to discourage them, but found they were willing to pay even the large sums he asked.[40] As a result, he became one of the best-paid authors of his time.
Statue of Holmes and the English Church in Meiringen
In December 1893, to dedicate more of his time to his historical novels, Doyle had Holmes andProfessor Moriarty plunge to their deaths together down theReichenbach Falls in the story "The Final Problem". Public outcry, however, led him to feature Holmes in 1901 in the novelThe Hound of the Baskervilles. Holmes's fictional connection with the Reichenbach Falls is celebrated in the nearby town ofMeiringen.
In 1903, Doyle published his first Holmes short story in ten years, "The Adventure of the Empty House", in which it was explained that only Moriarty had fallen, but since Holmes had other dangerous enemies—especiallyColonel Sebastian Moran—he had arranged to make it look as if he too were dead. Holmes was ultimately featured in a total of 56short stories—the last published in 1927—and four novels by Doyle, and has since appeared inmany novels and stories by other authors.
Other works
Doyle's house inSouth Norwood, Croydon, south-east London, and right, a close-up of the commemorativeblue plaque at the address
Doyle's first novels wereThe Mystery of Cloomber, not published until 1888, and the unfinishedNarrative of John Smith, published only posthumously, in 2011.[43] He amassed a portfolio of short stories, including "The Captain of the Pole-Star" and "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement", both inspired by Doyle's time at sea. The latter popularised the mystery of theMary Celeste[44] and added fictional details such as that the ship was found in perfect condition (it had actually taken on water by the time it was discovered), and that its boats remained on board (the single boat was in fact missing). These fictional details have come to dominate popular accounts of the incident,[9][44] and Doyle's alternative spelling of the ship's name as theMarie Celeste has become more commonly used than the original spelling.[45]
Between 1888 and 1906, Doyle wrote seven historical novels, which he and many critics regarded as his best work.[40] He also wrote nine other novels, and—later in his career (1912–29)—five narratives (three of novel or novella length) featuring the irascible scientistProfessor Challenger. The Challenger stories include his best-known work after the Holmes oeuvre,The Lost World. His historical novels includeThe White Company and its prequelSir Nigel, set in theMiddle Ages. He was a prolific author of short stories, including two collections set inNapoleonic times and featuring the French characterBrigadier Gerard.
Authors v Artistscricket match in London, May 1903. Doyle is stood in the back row, 6th from left.
Doyle was a keen cricketer, and between 1899 and 1907 he played 10first-class matches for theMarylebone Cricket Club (MCC).[48] He also played for the amateur cricket teams theAllahakbarries and theAuthors XI, which consisted of some of the best-known British authors from the era, including Doyle,J. M. Barrie,P. G. Wodehouse andA. A. Milne.[49][50] His highest score, in 1902 againstLondon County, was 43. He was an occasional bowler who took one first-class wicket,W. G. Grace, and wrote a poem about the achievement.[51] His captaincy of the Authors XI lasted from 1899 to 1912, during which time his cricket scores were by far the most common entries in his diary.[52]
In 1900, Doyle founded the Undershaw Rifle Club at his home, constructing a 100-yard range and providing shooting for local men, as the poor showing of British troops in the Boer War had led him to believe that the general population needed training in marksmanship.[53][54] He was a champion of "miniature" rifle clubs, whose members shot small-calibre firearms on local ranges.[55][56] These ranges were much cheaper and more accessible to working-class participants than large "fullbore" ranges, such asBisley Camp, which were necessarily remote from population centres. Doyle went on to sit on the Rifle Clubs Committee of theNational Rifle Association.[57]
In 1901, Doyle was one of three judges for the world's first major bodybuilding competition, which was organised by the "Father of Bodybuilding",Eugen Sandow. The event was held in London'sRoyal Albert Hall. The other two judges were the sculptor SirCharles Lawes-Wittewronge and Eugen Sandow himself.[58]
Doyle was an amateur boxer.[59] In 1909, he was invited to referee theJames Jeffries–Jack Johnson heavyweight championship fight inReno, Nevada. Doyle wrote: "I was much inclined to accept ... though my friends pictured me as winding up with a revolver at one ear and a razor at the other. However, the distance and my engagements presented a final bar."[59]
Also a keen golfer, Doyle was elected captain of the Crowborough Beacon Golf Club inSussex for 1910. He had moved to Little Windlesham house inCrowborough with Jean Leckie, his second wife, and resided there with his family from 1907 until his death in July 1930.[60]
He entered the English AmateurBilliards Championship in 1913.[61] While living in Switzerland, Doyle became interested in skiing, which was relatively unknown in Switzerland at the time. He wrote an article, "An Alpine Pass on 'Ski'" for the December 1894 issue ofThe Strand Magazine,[62] in which he described his experiences with skiing and the beautiful alpine scenery that could be seen in the process. The article popularised the activity and began the long association between Switzerland and skiing.[63]
In 1885, Doyle married Louisa (sometimes called "Touie") Hawkins (1857–1906). She was the youngest daughter of J. Hawkins, ofMinsterworth, Gloucestershire, and the sister of one of Doyle's patients. Louisa hadtuberculosis.[64] In 1907, the year after Louisa's death, he married Jean Elizabeth Leckie (1874–1940). He had met and fallen in love with Jean in 1897, but had maintained a platonic relationship with her while his first wife was still alive, out of loyalty to her.[65] Most of Doyle's family, including his mother, were aware of the relationship, but it appears to have remained unknown to Louisa.[20] Jean outlived her husband and died during wartime on 27 June 1940.[66]
Doyle fathered five children. He had two with his first wife: Mary Louise (1889–1976) and Arthur Alleyne Kingsley, known as Kingsley (1892–1918). He had an additional three with his second wife: Denis Percy Stewart (1909–1955), who became the second husband ofGeorgian PrincessNina Mdivani;Adrian Malcolm (1910–1970); andJean Lena Annette (1912–1997).[67] None of Doyle's five children had children of their own, so he has no living direct descendants.[68][69]
Doyle served as a volunteer physician in the Langman Field Hospital atBloemfontein between March and June 1900,[70] during theSecond Boer War in South Africa (1899–1902). Later that year, he wrote a book on the war,The Great Boer War, as well as a short work titledThe War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct, in which he responded to critics of the United Kingdom's role in that war, and argued that its role was justified. The latter work was widely translated, and Doyle believed it was the reason he wasknighted (given the rank ofKnight Bachelor) byKing Edward VII in the1902 Coronation Honours.[71] He received the accolade from the King in person atBuckingham Palace on 24 October of that year.[72]
Doyle was a supporter of the campaign for the reform of theCongo Free State that was led by the journalistE. D. Morel and diplomatRoger Casement. In 1909, he wroteThe Crime of the Congo, a long pamphlet in which he denounced the horrors of that colony. He became acquainted with Morel and Casement, and it is possible that, together withBertram Fletcher Robinson, they inspired several characters that appear in his 1912 novelThe Lost World.[76] Later, after the IrishEaster Rising, Casement was found guilty of treason against the Crown, and was sentenced to death. Doyle tried, unsuccessfully, to save him, arguing that Casement had been driven mad and therefore should not be held responsible for his actions.[77]
As theFirst World War loomed, and having been caught up in a growing public swell ofGermanophobia, Doyle gave a public donation of 10 shillings to the anti-immigrationBritish Brothers' League.[78] In 1914, Doyle was one of fifty-three leading British authors—includingH. G. Wells,Rudyard Kipling andThomas Hardy—who signed their names to the "Authors' Declaration", justifying Britain's involvement in the First World War. This manifesto declared that the German invasion of Belgium had been a brutal crime, and that Britain "could not without dishonour have refused to take part in the present war".[79]
Doyle was also a fervent advocate of justice and personally investigated two closed cases, which led to two men being exonerated of the crimes of which they were accused. The first case, in 1906, involved a shy half-British, half-Indian lawyer namedGeorge Edalji, who had allegedly penned threatening letters and mutilated animals inGreat Wyrley. Police were set on Edalji's conviction, even though the mutilations continued after their suspect was jailed.[80] Apart from helping George Edalji, Doyle's work helped establish a way to correct other miscarriages of justice, as it was partially as a result of this case that theCourt of Criminal Appeal was established in 1907.[81]
The story of Doyle and Edalji was dramatised in an episode of the 1972 BBC television series,The Edwardians. In Nicholas Meyer's pasticheThe West End Horror (1976), Holmes manages to help clear the name of a shyParsi Indian character wronged by the English justice system. Edalji was of Parsi heritage on his father's side. The story was fictionalised inJulian Barnes's 2005 novelArthur and George, which was adapted into a three-part drama by ITV in 2015.[82]
The second case, that ofOscar Slater—a Jew of German origin who operated a gambling den and was convicted of bludgeoning an 82-year-old woman inGlasgow in 1908—excited Doyle's curiosity because of inconsistencies in the prosecution's case and a general sense that Slater was not guilty. He ended up paying most of the costs for Slater's successful 1928 appeal.[83]
Freemasonry and spiritualism
Doyle had a longstanding interest in mystical subjects and remained fascinated by the idea of paranormal phenomena, even though the strength of his belief in their reality waxed and waned periodically over the years.
In 1887, in Southsea, influenced by Major-GeneralAlfred Wilks Drayson, a member of the Portsmouth Literary and Philosophical Society, Doyle began a series of investigations into the possibility of psychic phenomena and attended about 20 seances, experiments in telepathy, and sittings with mediums. Writing tospiritualist journalLight that year, he declared himself to be a spiritualist, describing one particular event that had convinced him psychic phenomena were real.[84] Also in 1887 (on 26 January), he was initiated as aFreemason at the Phoenix Lodge No. 257 in Southsea. (He resigned from the Lodge in 1889, returned to it in 1902, and resigned again in 1911.)[85]
In 1889, he became a founding member of the Hampshire Society for Psychical Research; in 1893, he joined the London-basedSociety for Psychical Research; and in 1894, he collaborated with Sir Sidney Scott andFrank Podmore in a search for poltergeists in Devon.[86] Some claim that Doyle was also a member of theHermetic Order of the Golden Dawn;[87] others, such as the biographer Christopher Sandford, dispute this, saying that while he knew members of the order and was invited to join, he most likely declined, being already too busy with other organisations and pursuits.[88]
Doyle and the spiritualistWilliam Thomas Stead (who would die on theTitanic) were led to believe thatJulius and Agnes Zancig had genuine psychic powers, and they claimed publicly that the Zancigs usedtelepathy. However, in 1924, the Zancigs confessed that theirmind reading act had been a trick; they published the secret code and all other details of the trick method they had used under the title "Our Secrets!!" in a London newspaper.[89] Doyle also praised thepsychic phenomena and spiritmaterialisations that he believed had been produced byEusapia Palladino andMina Crandon, both of whom were also later exposed as frauds.[90]
In 1916, at the height of the First World War, Doyle's belief in psychic phenomena was strengthened by what he took to be the psychic abilities of his children's nanny, Lily Loder Symonds.[91] This and the constant drumbeat of wartime deaths inspired him with the idea that spiritualism was what he called a "New Revelation"[92] sent by God to bring solace to the bereaved. He wrote a piece inLight magazine about his faith and began lecturing frequently on spiritualism. In 1918, he published his first spiritualist work,The New Revelation.
Some have mistakenly assumed that Doyle's turn to spiritualism was prompted by the death of his son Kingsley, but Doyle began presenting himself publicly as a spiritualist in 1916, and Kingsley died on 28 October 1918 (from pneumonia contracted during his convalescence after being seriously wounded in the 1916Battle of the Somme).[92] Nevertheless, the war-related deaths of many people who were close to him appear to have even further strengthened his long-held belief in life after death and spirit communication. Doyle's brotherBrigadier-general Innes Doyle died, also from pneumonia, in February 1919. His two brothers-in-law (one of whom wasE. W. Hornung, creator of the literary characterRaffles), as well as his two nephews, also died shortly after the war. His second book on spiritualism,The Vital Message, appeared in 1919.
In 1919, the magicianP. T. Selbit staged a séance at his flat inBloomsbury, which Doyle attended. Although some later claimed that Doyle had endorsed the apparent instances ofclairvoyance at that séance as genuine,[95][96] a contemporaneous report by theSunday Express quoted Doyle as saying "I should have to see it again before passing a definite opinion on it" and "I have my doubts about the whole thing".[97] In 1920, Doyle and the noted scepticJoseph McCabe held a public debate at Queen's Hall in London, with Doyle taking the position that the claims of spiritualism were true. After the debate, McCabe published a bookletIs Spiritualism Based on Fraud?, in which he laid out evidence refuting Doyle's arguments and claimed that Doyle had been duped into believing in spiritualism through deliberatemediumship trickery.[98]
Doyle also debated the psychiatristHarold Dearden, who vehemently disagreed with Doyle's belief that many cases of diagnosed mental illness were the result ofspirit possession.[99]
In 1920, Doyle travelled to Australia and New Zealand on spiritualist missionary work, and over the next several years, until his death, he continued his mission, giving talks about his spiritualist conviction in Britain, Europe, and the United States.[86]
One of the five photographs of Frances Griffiths with thealleged fairies, taken by Elsie Wright inCottingley, England in July 1917
Doyle wrote a novelThe Land of Mist centred on spiritualist themes and featuring the character Professor Challenger. He also wrote many non-fiction spiritualist works. Perhaps his most famous of these wasThe Coming of the Fairies (1922),[100] in which Doyle described his beliefs about the nature and existence of fairies and spirits, reproduced the fiveCottingley Fairies photographs, asserted that those who suspected them being faked were wrong, and expressed his conviction that they were authentic. Decades later, the photos—taken by cousins Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright—were definitively shown to have been faked, and their creators admitted to the fakery, although both maintained that they really had seen fairies.[101]
Doyle was friends for a time with the American magicianHarry Houdini. Even though Houdini explained that his feats were based on illusion and trickery, Doyle was convinced that Houdini had supernatural powers and said as much in his workThe Edge of the Unknown. Houdini's friendBernard M. L. Ernst recounted a time when Houdini had performed an impressive trick at his home in Doyle's presence. Houdini had assured Doyle that the trick was pure illusion and had expressed the hope that this demonstration would persuade Doyle not to go around "endorsing phenomena" simply because he could think of no explanation for what he had seen other than supernatural power. However, according to Ernst, Doyle simply refused to believe that it had been a trick.[102] Houdini became a prominent opponent of the spiritualist movement in the 1920s, after the death of his beloved mother. He insisted that spiritualist mediums employed trickery, and he consistently exposed them as frauds. These differences between Houdini and Doyle eventually led to a bitter, public falling-out between them.[103]
1922 photograph of Doyle by spirit photographer Ada Deane
In 1922, the psychical researcherHarry Price accused the "spirit photographer"William Hope of fraud. Doyle defended Hope, but further evidence of trickery was obtained from other researchers.[104] Doyle threatened to have Price evicted from theNational Laboratory of Psychical Research and predicted that, if he persisted in writing what he called "sewage" about spiritualists, he would meet the same fate as Harry Houdini.[105] Price wrote: "Arthur Conan Doyle and his friends abused me for years for exposing Hope."[106] In response to the exposure of frauds that had been perpetrated by Hope and other spiritualists, Doyle led 84 members of theSociety for Psychical Research to resign in protest from the society on the ground that they believed it was opposed to spiritualism.[107]
Doyle's two-volume bookThe History of Spiritualism was published in 1926.W. Leslie Curnow a spiritualist, contributed much research to the book.[108][109] Later that year,Robert John Tillyard wrote a predominantly supportive review of it in the journalNature.[110] This review provoked controversy: Several other critics, includingA. A. Campbell Swinton, pointed out the evidence of fraud in mediumship, as well as Doyle's non-scientific approach to the subject.[111][112][113] In 1927, Doyle gave a filmed interview, in which he spoke about Sherlock Holmes and spiritualism.[114]
Doyle and the Piltdown hoax
Richard Milner, an American historian of science, argued that Doyle may have been the perpetrator of thePiltdown Man hoax of 1912, creating the counterfeithominid fossil that fooled the scientific world for over 40 years. Milner noted that Doyle had a plausible motive—namely, revenge on the scientific establishment for debunking one of his favourite psychics—and said thatThe Lost World appeared to contain several clues referring cryptically to his having been involved in the hoax.[115][116]Samuel Rosenberg's 1974 bookNaked Is the Best Disguise purports to explain how, throughout his writings, Doyle had provided overt clues to otherwise hidden or suppressed aspects of his way of thinking that seemed to support the idea that Doyle would be involved in such a hoax.[117]
However, more recent research suggests that Doyle was not involved. In 2016, researchers at theNatural History Museum andLiverpool John Moores University analyzed DNA evidence showing that responsibility for the hoax lay with the amateur archaeologistCharles Dawson, who had originally "found" the remains. He had initially not been considered the likely perpetrator, because the hoax was seen as being too elaborate for him to have devised. However, the DNA evidence showed that a supposedly ancient tooth he had "discovered" in 1915 (at a different site) came from the same jaw as that of the Piltdown Man, suggesting that he had planted them both. That tooth, too, was later proven to have been planted as part of a hoax.[118]
Chris Stringer, an anthropologist from the Natural History Museum, was quoted as saying: "Conan Doyle was known to play golf at the Piltdown site and had even given Dawson a lift in his car to the area, but he was a public man and very busy[,] and it is very unlikely that he would have had the time [to create the hoax]. So there are some coincidences, but I think they are just coincidences. When you look at the fossil evidence[,] you can only associate Dawson with all the finds, and Dawson was known to be personally ambitious. He wanted professional recognition. He wanted to be a member of the Royal Society and he was after an MBE [sic[119]]. He wanted people to stop seeing him as an amateur".[120]
Architecture
Façade ofUndershaw with Doyle's children, Mary and Kingsley, on the drive
Another of Doyle's longstanding interests was architectural design. In 1895, when he commissioned an architect friend of his, Joseph Henry Ball, to build him a home, he played an active part in the design process.[121][122] The home in which he lived from October 1897 to September 1907, known asUndershaw (nearHindhead, in Surrey),[123] was used as a hotel and restaurant from 1924 until 2004, when it was bought by a developer and then stood empty while conservationists and Doyle fans fought to preserve it.[64] In 2012, theHigh Court in London ruled in favour of those seeking to preserve the historic building, ordering that the redevelopment permission be quashed on the ground that it had not been obtained through proper procedures.[124] The building was later approved to become part of Stepping Stones, a school for children with disabilities and special needs.
Doyle made his most ambitious foray into architecture in March 1912, while he was staying at theLyndhurst Grand Hotel: he sketched the original designs for a third-storey extension and for an alteration of the front facade of the building.[125] Work began later that year, and when it was finished, the building was a nearly exact manifestation of the plans Doyle had sketched. Superficial alterations have been subsequently made, but the essential structure is still clearly Doyle's.[126]
In 1914, on a family trip to theJasper National Park in Canada, he designed a golf course and ancillary buildings for a hotel. The plans were realised in full, but neither the golf course nor the buildings have survived.[127]
In 1926, Doyle laid the foundation stone for a Spiritualist Temple in Camden, London. Of the building's total £600 construction costs, he provided £500.[128]
Crimes Club
The Crimes Club was a private social club founded by Doyle in 1903, whose purpose was discussion of crime and detection, criminals and criminology, and continues to this day as "Our Society", with membership numbers limited to 100. The club meets four times a year at the Imperial Hotel, Russell Square, London, with the proceedings conducted under theChatham House Rules. Its logo is a silhouette of Doyle.[129]
Doyle was found clutching his chest in the hall of Windlesham Manor, his house inCrowborough, Sussex, on 7 July 1930. He died of a heart attack at the age of 71. His last words were directed toward his wife: "You are wonderful."[131]
At the time of his death, there was some controversy concerning his burial place, as he was avowedly not a Christian, considering himself a Spiritualist. He was first buried on 11 July 1930 in Windlesham rose garden. In his will, he bequeathed £250 per year toAlfred Wood, who had served as his private secretary since 1897.[132]
Doyle's Grave and Minstead church in 2025Doyle's grave atMinstead
He was later reinterred together with his wife inMinstead churchyard in theNew Forest, Hampshire.[9] The epitaph on his gravestone in the churchyard reads, in part: "Steel true / Blade straight / Arthur Conan Doyle / Knight / Patriot, physician and man of letters".[133]
Carved wooden tablets to his memory and to the memory of his wife, originally from the church at Minstead, are on display as part of a Sherlock Holmes exhibition at Portsmouth Museum.[134][135]
A statue honours Doyle at Crowborough Cross in Crowborough, where he lived for 23 years.[136] There is a statue of Sherlock Holmes in Picardy Place,Edinburgh, close to the house where Doyle was born.[137]
Ryohei Kimura in the mobile gameIkémen Vampire: Temptation in the Dark (2019)[149]
In fiction
Arthur Conan Doyle is the ostensible narrator of Ian Madden's short story "Cracks in an Edifice of Sheer Reason".[150]
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle features as a recurring character in Pip Murphy's Christie and Agatha's Detective Agency series, includingA Discovery Disappears[151] andOf Mountains and Motors.[152]
^Stashower says that the compound version of his surname originated from his great-uncle Michael Conan, a distinguished journalist, from whom Arthur and his elder sister, Annette, received the compound surname of "Conan Doyle" (Stashower 20–21). The same source points out that in 1885 he was describing himself on the brass nameplate outside his house, and on his doctoral thesis, as "A. Conan Doyle" (Stashower 70).
^Redmond, Christopher (2009).Sherlock Holmes Handbook 2nd ed. Dundurn.p. 97. Google Books. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
^Doyle, Steven; Crowder, David A. (2010).Sherlock Holmes for Dummies. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.p. 51.
^ab"No. 27494".The London Gazette. 11 November 1902. p. 7165.The entry, 'Arthur Conan Doyle, Esq., M.D., D.L.', is alphabetised based on 'Doyle'.
^The details of the births of Arthur and his siblings are unclear. Some sources say there were nine children, some say ten. It seems three died in childhood. SeeOwen Dudley Edwards, "Doyle, Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan (1859–1930)",Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004;Encyclopædia BritannicaArchived 27 May 2009 at theWayback Machine;Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, Wordsworth Editions, 2007 p. viii;ISBN978-1-84022-570-9.
^abcdefghijkOwen Dudley Edwards, "Doyle, Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan (1859–1930)",Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
^Lellenberg, Jon; Stashower, Daniel; Foley, Charles (2007).Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters. HarperPress. pp. 8–9.ISBN978-0-00-724759-2.
^abPascal, Janet (2000).Arthur Conan Doyle: Beyond Baker Street. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 14.ISBN0-19-512262-3.
^abO'Brien, James (2013).The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 1.ISBN978-0-19-979496-6.
^Miller, Russell (2010).The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle. New York: Random House.ISBN978-1-4070-9308-6.
^Golgotha Press (2011).The Life and Times of Arthur Conan Doyle. BookCaps Study Guides.ISBN978-1-62107-027-6.In time, he would reject the Catholic religion and become an agnostic.
^Pascal, Janet B. (2000).Arthur Conan Doyle: Beyond Baker Street. Oxford University Press. p. 139.
^Brown, Yoland (1988).Ruyton XI Towns, Unusual Name, Unusual History. Brewin Books. pp. 92–93.ISBN0-947731-41-5.
^Conan Doyle, Arthur (Author), Lellenberg, Jon (Editor), Stashower, Daniel (Editor) (2012).Dangerous Work: Diary of an Arctic Adventure. University of Chicago Press;ISBN978-0-226-00905-6.
^"Champions of Civilian Marksmanship".American Rifleman. National Rifle Association of America. 8 October 2015.Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved1 September 2022.
^Arthur Conan Doyle (5 January 1901)."The Undershaw Rifle Club"(English).The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia.Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved1 September 2022.
^Captain Philip Trevor (June 1901)."A British Commando".The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia.Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved13 October 2022.
^"History".National Rifle Association.Archived from the original on 1 September 2022. Retrieved13 October 2022.
^International Commentary on Evidence, Volume 4, Issue 2 2006 Article 3, Boxes in Boxes: Julian Bardes, Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and the Edalji Case, D. Michael Risinger
^International Commentary on Evidence, Volume 4, Issue 2 2006 Article 3, Boxes in Boxes: Julian Barnes, Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and the Edalji Case, D. Michael Risinger
^William Kalush, Larry Ratso Sloman. (2006).The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero. Atria Books. pp. 419–420.ISBN978-0-7432-7208-7.
^G. K. Nelson. (2013).Spiritualism and Society. Routledge. p. 159;ISBN978-0-415-71462-4.
^Hall, Trevor H. (1978).Sherlock Holmes and his Creator. Duckworth. p. 121.
^Stashower, Daniel (1999).Teller of Tales: The Life of Arthur Conan Doyle. Henry Holt & Company. "A Spiritualist researcher namedW. Leslie Curnow contributed a great deal of material and wrote some of the chapters, which Conan Doyle freely admits in the book's preface."
^Duncan, Alistair (2011).An Entirely New Country: Arthur Conan Doyle, Undershaw and the Resurrection of Sherlock Holmes. MX Publishing.ISBN978-1-908218-19-3.
^"The Edwardians: Conan Doyle".BBC Genome: Radio Times. BBC. 12 December 1972.Archived from the original on 10 November 2020. Retrieved10 November 2020.
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, Knt. – Cr. 1902Archived 21 August 2014 at theWayback Machine,The county families of the United Kingdom orRoyal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, (Volume ed. 59, yr. 1919) (page 109 of 415) by Edward Walford
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