Great Personalities

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Do you remember Sherlock Holms, the greatest detective in the history lived at 221B, Baker Street in London? Then you might be familiar with the name, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle too for he is the creator of that famous fictional character. Apart from Sherlock Holms, his works consist of science fiction, history, romance, poetry, drama and non-fiction. Another one of his famous novels is ‘The Lost World’. The Scottish-physician and author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was born on 22nd of May 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland to English father Charles Altamont Doyle and Irish mother nee` Mary Foley.

School Life

Conan Doyle started schooling at the age of nine at Roman Catholic Preparatory School in Hodder Place, Stony Hurst. Then he went to Stony Hurst College. He finished schooling in1875. From 1876 to 1881, he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. While studying medicine, he also started writing short stories. His first story was published in the Chamber’s Edinburgh Journal before he was twenty.
On a voyage to the West African Coast, he served as a ship’s doctor, while following his term at the university.

Early life

In 1882, he joined a former classmate called George Budd as a partner at a medical practice at Plymouth. Since he was not satisfied with it, he soon started his own independent practice at Portsmouth. At first, it was unsuccessful; patients rarely came. Therefore he started writing during this period of waiting for patients. It is most accurate to say that it is during this time that the first appearance of Sherlock Holms( who was modeled after Doyle’s former university professor Joseph Bell), comes to the detective world through Doyle’s first significant work called A Scarlet Feather which appeared in Bee tons Christmas Annual for 1887. The future short stories featuring Sherlock Holms were published in the English Strand Magazine.
Conan Doyle was also a good sportsman too. He had played football, cricket and golf. He was appointed the captain of the Crow borough Beacon Golf Club, East Sussex, for the year 1910.
He moved to London in 1891 and there, though he set up a practice as an ophthalmologist, patients rarely came. At this point, he decides to kill his fictional character, Sherlock Holms.
Although he does so in his work called ‘The Final Problem’, with the influence of the public, Sherlock holms returns in his next story, ‘The Adventures of the Empty House’.
Anyhow, 56 short stories and 4 novels featuring Sherlock Holms were written by the pen of Conan Doyle.
Going back to Doyle’s private life, he married Louisa Hawkins in 1885.
She died from tuberculosis in 1906. Afterwards, he married Jean Elizabeth Leckie in 1907. Doyle had five children.

Immortality

Conan Doyle was knighted in 1902 and was appointed deputy Lieutenant of Surrey. He was also involved in politics. Twice, he ran for the parliament as a Liberal Unionist. Even though he received a fair amount of votes, he was never elected.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died of a heart attack at the age of seventy-one in Crow borough, East Sussex on 7th of July 1930. On his gravestone of the churchyard at Minstead in the New Forest, Hampshire reads; A U.S poet, Henry Wadsworth said ‘when a great man dies, for years the light he leaves behind him, lies on the path of men’.
What do we have to say about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? He might be dead, but the light he left behind him for us to explore, is immortal.
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