[Sir]. English novelist, eldest son of the artist Charles Doyle; born on the 22nd of May 1859. He was sent to Stonyhurst College, and further pursued his education in Germany, and at Edinburgh University where he graduated M.B. in 1881 and M.D. in 1885. He had begun to practise as a doctor in Southsea when he published A Study in Scarlet in 1887. Micah Clarke (1888), a tale of Monmouth’s rebellion, The Sign of Four (1889), and The White Company (1891), a romance of Du Guesclin’s time, followed. In Rodney Stone (1896) he drew an admirable sketch of the prince regent; and he collected a popular series of stories of the Napoleonic wars in The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard (1896). In 1891 he attained immense popularity by The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which first appeared in The Strand Magazine. These ingenious stories of the success of the imperturbable Sherlock Holmes, who had made his first appearance in A Study in Scarlet (1887), in detecting crime and disentangling mystery, found a host of imitators. The novelist himself returned to his hero in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1893), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), and The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905). His later books include numerous novels; plays, The Story of Waterloo (1894), in which Sir Henry Irving played the leading part, The Fires of Fate (1909), and The House of Temperley (1909); and two books in defence of the British army in South Africa—The Great Boer War (1900) and The War in South Africa; its Causes and Conduct (1902). Dr. Conan Doyle served as registrar of the Langman Field Hospital in South Africa, and was knighted in 1902. He was one of the originators of the Volunteer Corps during the World War, the first corps being formed by him at Crowborough, Sussex, in August 1914. In this, the 6th Sussex Batt., he served for four years as a private. He also did much propaganda work, and issued various pamphlets on war subjects, also a six-volume history of the war which was extensively read in America. He visited the war zones twice, and published The British Campaign in France and Flanders, 1914 (1916) and A Visit to Three Fronts (1916), as well as a volume of verse, Then Guards Came Through, and other Poems (1919). His other writings since 1910 include The Case of Oscar Slater (1912); The Poison Belt (1913); Danger (1918) and His Last Bow (1918). He became an ardent spiritualist and published A New Revelation (1918) and The Vital Message (1919), following these up by an active campaign of lecturing and controversy on the possibility of proving by spiritualism the continued existence and conditions of human life after death. A public debate between him and Joseph McCabe on the subject took place in 1920. See also “The Red-Headed League,” “The Bowmen’s Song,” The Great Shadow and Sir Nigel.
