The Remarkable Life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

If you are at all familiar with the name of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it is probably as the writer and creator of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. You may even be aware that he had a strong interest in Spiritualism and more generally in all things paranormal. Being a prolific best-selling author as well as an avid seeker of the spooky stuff, should have kept him fairly busy, you would be forgiven for thinking. But not a bit of it. It transpires that Sir Arthur was a man of varied talents who led a life of astonishing variety.

However, let us firstly clear up a popular misconception. Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 22 May 1859. However, his baptism entry gives “Arthur Ignatius Conan” as his given names and “Doyle” as his surname. It seems that at some point, presumably to make himself sound more impressive, he started to use Conan Doyle as a compound surname. But he actually started life as plain old Arthur Doyle.

Unfortunately, life did not start well for young Arthur. Owing to his father’s increasing alcoholism, the family was temporarily split up in 1864, before reuniting three years later, but they ended up residing in a squalid tenement flat. Fortunately however, Doyle had wealthy uncles who took the decision to pay for his education, and so Arthur was sent firstly to a Jesuit preparatory school in Lancashire, England, followed by a Jesuit school in Feldkirch, Austria, in order to perfect his German as well broadening his academic horizons.

After finishing school, Doyle elected to study medicine and botany, graduating with Batchelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery degrees from the University of Edinburgh in 1881. His first professional appointments were maritime. He firstly served as ship’s doctor on a Greenland whaler, followed by a post of ship’s surgeon on the SS Mayumba, during a voyage to the West African coast. Thereafter, he worked in England as a general practitioner at medical practices in Plymouth and Portsmouth, before deciding to specialise as an ophthalmologist (eye doctor, in case you were wondering), and setting up his own practice in London.

It was around this time that Doyle also began his literary career, which was both wide ranging and prolific, although he is best remembered as the creator of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, whom he based on one of his university tutors, Joseph Bell. However, as it is his literary achievements for which he is commemorated today, I will instead concentrate on other aspects of this fascinating man’s life.

Let us first take a look at the sporting career of Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle. Whilst living and practicing medicine in Portsmouth, Doyle was also goalkeeper for Portsmouth Association Football Club (a soccer team to our American friends). He was also a keen, and reasonably talented, cricketer. Between 1899 and 1907 he played ten first-class matches for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). His highest innings score came in 1902, when he scored 43. He also occasionally bowled, and although he only took one first class wicket, it was some wicket. He bowled out none other than W. G. Grace, the greatest cricketer of his generation, and considered by many as one of the greatest of all time.

He was also keen on bodybuilding, and in 1901 he was one of three judges at the world’s first major bodybuilding competition held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. As if all that wasn’t enough, Arthur was also an amateur boxer, and in 1909 he was invited to referee the world heavyweight championship fight between James Jeffries and Jack Johnson in Reno, Nevada, U.S.A. Unfortunately, his pre-existing commitments meant he was unable to accept the invitation. You don’t say! He also enjoyed playing golf and was elected captain of the Crowborough Beacon Golf Club in Sussex, England for the year 1910. He entered the English amateur billiards championship in 1913. He also somehow found time to learn to ski and ice skate.

During the Boer War (1899-1902), Doyle volunteered for active service, but at 40 was considered too old, and so he instead served as a volunteer doctor at a field hospital in Bloemfontein, South Africa. It was for his service to his country that on 24 October 1902 he was knighted by King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace. He twice stood for Parliament, in 1900 and again in 1906, but despite receiving a respectable share of the vote, he was not successful on either occasion. He served as Deputy-Lieutenant of Surrey from 1902.

A fervent advocate of justice, Doyle became involved in two closed criminal cases. His investigations led to the exoneration of two men who had been wrongly accused and convicted of crimes. The first, in 1906, concerned a lawyer named George Edalji, who had been convicted of animal mutilation, and the conviction had been upheld despite the fact that the mutilations continued even after Edalji had been jailed. Doyle’s work on the case was partly responsible for the establishment of the Court of Criminal Appeal in 1907. The second case involved a man named Oscar Slater who had been convicted of bludgeoning an 82 year-old woman in Glasgow. Inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case led Doyle to believe he was not guilty, and in 1928 his appeal against conviction was successful.

So, there we have it. Medical practitioner, botanist, footballer, cricketer, boxer, golfer, war veteran, prospective parliamentarian, paranormal investigator, and righter of wrongs. Given everything he had to keep him occupied, it’s a wonder that Sherlock Holmes ever saw the light of day.

On 7July 1930, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was discovered clutching his chest in the hall of Windlesham Manor, his home in Crowborough, East Sussex, England. He died of a heart attack shortly thereafter at the age of 71. His last words, spoken to his wife were “You are wonderful.” Owing to his Spiritualist ideology, it was not thought appropriate to lay him to rest in consecrated ground, and as a consequence he was initially buried in the rose garden at Windlesham Manor. However, following the death of his wife he was reinterred next to her in Minstead churchyard in the New Forest, Hampshire, England. The epitaph on his gravestone reads “Steel true, Blade straight, Arthur Conan Doyle, Knight, Patriot, Physician and man of letters.” That was putting it mildly.

Sources:

Britannica.com

Wikipedia.org