Famous Scots Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was a British writer and medical doctor best known as the creator of the iconic detective Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Dr. Watson, first appearing in the 1887 novel A Study in Scarlet. The 56 short stories and four novels featuring Holmes are considered milestones in crime fiction. Doyle was a prolific writer whose diverse works also include the fantasy and science fiction tales of Professor Challenger, humorous stories about Brigadier Gerard, historical novels, poetry, and plays. Although often referred to as “Conan Doyle,” “Conan” was technically his middle name, with “Doyle” being his surname.

Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1859 to Irish Catholic parents. His early family life was challenging due to his father’s alcoholism and eventual psychiatric illness. Supported by wealthy uncles, he received a Jesuit education in England at Hodder Place and Stonyhurst College (1868–1875), where he found the academic regimen harsh and medieval. He completed his schooling at a Jesuit institution in Austria, during which time he rejected Catholicism, becoming an agnostic before later embracing Spiritualism.

From 1876 to 1881, Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School, where he began writing short stories. His first published piece, “The Mystery of Sasassa Valley,” appeared in 1879, the same year he published his first academic article, “Gelsemium as a Poison,” in the British Medical Journal. He served as a doctor on a Greenland whaler and as a ship’s surgeon on a voyage to West Africa before graduating with his M.B., C.M. in 1881 and an M.D. in 1885. He then set up an unsuccessful independent medical practice in Southsea, Portsmouth, in 1882, where he returned to writing fiction while waiting for patients. He was also a staunch supporter of compulsory vaccination. An attempt to specialize in ophthalmology in Vienna and London in 1891 also failed, leaving him with a non-existent practice.

His first Holmes work, A Study in Scarlet, was written when he was 27 and bought for £25 by a publisher, appearing in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. Sherlock Holmes was partly modeled on Doyle’s former university teacher, Joseph Bell, an advocate of deduction and observation. The Sign of the Four followed in 1890, after which Doyle turned to writing short stories for the Strand Magazine. Though he tried to kill off Holmes in “The Final Problem” (1893) by having him plunge over the Reichenbach Falls—in a bid to dedicate himself to his historical novels—public demand led him to resurrect the character in “The Adventure of the Empty House” (1903) and continue the stories until 1927.

Beyond the Holmes canon, Doyle’s other works include early short stories like “J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement,” which popularized the mystery of the Mary Celeste with added fictional details. He personally considered his seven historical novels (1888–1906), such as Sir Nigel and The White Company, his best work. His later career featured five narratives about the scientist Professor Challenger, including his other best-known novel, The Lost World.

Doyle was an avid sportsman: he played football as a goalkeeper under a pseudonym, was a keen cricketer for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), was an amateur boxer, and was captain of a golf club.

He married his first wife, Louisa Hawkins, in 1885 (who died in 1906) and his second wife, Jean Elizabeth Leckie, in 1907; he maintained a platonic relationship with Jean while Louisa was alive. He fathered five children across his two marriages, but all of them died without issue, leaving him with no direct descendants.

Doyle used his public platform for political and justice advocacy. His widely translated work, The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct, which defended Britain’s role in the Boer War (where he served as a volunteer doctor), is believed to have led to his knighthood by King Edward VII in 1902. He stood for Parliament twice as a Liberal Unionist, but was not elected. He was also a supporter of the campaign to reform the Congo Free State, writing the pamphlet The Crime of the Congo. He personally investigated two closed cases, leading to the exoneration of George Edalji (1906) and Oscar Slater (1928), and his work on the Edalji case contributed to the establishment of the Court of Criminal Appeal in 1907.

A long-time believer in the paranormal, Doyle officially declared himself a Spiritualist in 1916. He viewed it as a “New Revelation” providing solace, especially following the deaths of his son and brother after World War I. He published works like The New Revelation and The Vital Message, and lectured globally on his faith. His belief was so strong that he supported the fraudulent Cottingley Fairies photographs and had a bitter public falling out with his friend Harry Houdini, a noted skeptic whom Doyle nonetheless believed possessed supernatural powers.

Doyle died of a heart attack at his home in Crowborough, East Sussex, on July 7, 1930, at the age of 71. His final words were directed to his wife: “You are wonderful.” Due to his Spiritualist beliefs, he was first buried in his rose garden before being reinterred with his wife in Minstead churchyard, Hampshire. The epitaph on his gravestone reads, in part: “Steel true/Blade straight/Arthur Conan Doyle/Knight/Patriot, Physician and man of letters.” Statues of him and Sherlock Holmes commemorate him in Crowborough and Edinburgh, respectively.