John H Watson MD

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  • The Festival of Britain

    The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition that took place in the summer of 1951.

    In the planning for the Festival there was a discussion about whether part of the exhibition should be dedicated to Sherlock Holmes and set in the public library in St. Marylebone. Among Dr Watson’s files, is a notebook that records correspondence and cuttings from The Times of November 1950.

    According to the Good Doctor, it all began when News in Brief in The Times of Friday October 27th 1950 stated that the councillors of St. Marylebone opposed the suggestion by the borough library committee that a Sherlock Holmes exhibition should be staged in the public library as a contribution to the Festival. The leader of the council said that the borough had “many things to show off about without Sherlock Holmes”.

    This caused Dr Watson, to consider writing to Alderman Dean but instead he wrote to the editor of The Times the same day. In his notes, the doctor says that he doubted that Holmes would have seen the article and also doubted that he would have risen to his own defence. Dr Watson states that he believed that many of the visitors expected from abroad would find such an exhibition of interest and he suggested, with indignation, that they should reconsider their decision.

    This apparently provoked a good deal of interest with Councillor Sharp who invited Dr Watson to a meeting of the library committee the following Tuesday. Sharp informed Dr Watson that no final decision had been made and asked if any of Holmes personal effects might form the basis of just such an exhibition and indicated that he (Councillor Sharp) might have been one of Holmes’ clients and that he already possessed one of his violins!

    Councillor Vernon says he supported the idea of giving Holmes his appropriate place as an illustrious former resident of the borough, and a letter from an Ivor Back suggests that Vernon “spoke so slightingly” of Holmes. Ivor Back even suggested that Dr Watson should try to persuade Holmes to open the exhibition which the doctor thought was about as likely as the life-size statue of Silver Blaze that Ivor Back had suggested.

    Arthur Wontner, one of the actors who played Holmes at the cinema also added his support and Mycroft got involved but only to point out that he thought Dr Watson’s memory was failing. 

    One of Holmes’ former clients wrote to say that she thought that Dr Watson’s letter was a forgery as she believed that Dr Watson’s first name was James and a colleague of Dr Watson’s also added support.

    The following day, Mrs Hudson also wrote to The Times castigating Madame Tussaud’s round the corner from 221B for not having the pair’s effigies amongst its exhibits.

    In a letter to The Times on November 4th, Oscar Meunier, who made the bust of Holmes that was used to trap Sebastian Moran, and was, by then, living in London, stated that Holmes had asked him to ensure that no likeness of either of us or any of those he brought to justice should be perpetrated by waxen images.

    Nevertheless Dr Watson conveyed the good news about the exhibition to Holmes personally that day along with the copies of the cuttings from The Times that are included here. According to Dr Watson’s notes, Holmes was touched by this tribute but alas many of the relics of their cases that many hoped would form part of the exhibition were destroyed in that mysterious and disastrous fire shortly after the end of the war.

    In reporting in The Times that Holmes had warmed to the idea, Dr Watson also replied to Mycroft and Kate Whitney. He states that he was surprised to see that Lestrade had added his voice to the chorus of approval though careful reading indicates that Lestrade may have just been trying to get his own back.

    The Times editorial of November 7th sums the whole story up rather well and adds that should the Marylebone councillors feel in the future that they are “getting a little over-confident” in their powers that someone should kindly whisper “Baker Street” in their ears in a similar way to how Holmes asked Dr Watson to whisper “Norbury” in his!

    But the final word is with Dame Jean Conan Doyle, Arthur Conan Doyle’s daughter, who offered to provide much material for the exhibition.

  • Miniature Biographies: Dr Watson


    The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at the BBC – Episode 1

    Background

    Although the first broadcast of a Sherlock Holmes case was not until 1938 (Detectives In Fiction 1. Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of Silver Blaze), there were a number of Holmes-related programmes prior to that story.

    The first of these was a Miniature Biography of Dr Watson, broadcast at 9.20pm on Wednesday 4th December 1929 on the BBC 2LO London station and at the same time and day on the BBC 5XX Daventry station. 

    Early BBC transmitters

    At this point, early in the BBC history, these were the two principal broadcasting stations. The BBC 2 LO transmitter was in The Strand in London. The BBC acquired it from Marconi and its name came from the number of the Post Office licence issued to Marconi. This transmitter is now preserved at the Science Museum in London. The original transmitter was replaced by a more powerful one in the Selfridges building in London’s Oxford Street in 1925, but still using the 2LO call sign. It closed down in 1930 when a number of local stations were replaced by the BBC Regional Programme. 2LO was also used by John Logie Baird for some of the early television tests.

    The BBC 5XX transmitter at Daventry, opened in July 1925, and was the world’s first Long Wave  transmitting station. It covered 94% of the population and was in continuous use until 1992 and is now part of the BBC’s DAB radio network. As a radio station, it was replaced in 1920 by the BBC National Programme.

    Miniature Biography series

    The advance announcement of the Miniature Biography series in the Radio Times indicated that the biographies might be either real or imaginary. The six programmes planned to cover William Fletcher, Dorothy Wordsworth, Dr Watson, A Witch, Lady Caroline Lamb, Father Christmas, and Mrs Grundy.  Dorothy Wordsworth did not appear but in her place was Beau Brummell. Lady Caroline Lamb, was due to be broadcast on Christmas Day, also failed to appear altogether, and Father Christmas, or more properly, Santa Klaus was heard on Boxing Day (he was presumably busy the day before). 

    The remaining six talks were published in The Listener – the BBC’s weekly magazine that aimed to be “a medium for intelligent reception of broadcast programmes by way of amplification and explanation of those features which cannot now be dealt with in the editorial columns of the Radio Times.

    Desmond MacCarthy

    The biography of Dr Watson was presented by Desmond MacCarthy (1877-1952) who was associated with the Bloomsbury group, a group of English writers, philosophers, and artists who met between 1907 and 1930 in the  Bloomsbury district of London. 

    MacCarthy began his career as a freelance journalist, moving to editorial work, drama critic, literary editor, weekly columnist and literary critic. As weekly columnist for the New Statesman known as the “Affable Hawk,” he gained a reputation for erudition, sensitive judgment, and literary excellence. He gave a number of literary talks for the BBC and the Miniature Biography of Dr Watson was one of these. He was no stranger to Sherlock Holmes and was awarded Honorary Membership of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London for his contributions to Sherlockian literature.

    Dr Watson

    In MacCarthy’s broadcast Miniature Biography, he tantalises us by stating that he has “elected to open up my forthcoming and profusely illustrated biography of him in the modern fashion”. This “modern fashion” to which he refers, is the embellishment of a biography with surmise and imagination rather than pure fact. “There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact” says Sherlock Holmes in The Boscombe Valley Mystery.

    There is, of course, no such biography available, though a few have tried, most notably perhaps, Vincent Starrett in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1933) , June Thomson in Holmes and Watson: A Study in Friendship (1995) , and Nick Rennison in Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography (2005).

    In his account, a twenty-minute talk for which each presenter was paid 50 Guineas inclusive of publication in The Listener, MacCarthy deduces Dr Watson’s year of birth to be 1854 but reveals little that could not be ascertained by anyone studying the Canon. The full text of his talk can be found in The Listener Historical Archive and in Editor James Edward Holroyd’s Seventeen Steps to 221B: A Sherlockian Collection by English Writers  (see References).

    References

    BBC Genome www.genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. BBC historical listings information from 1923 to the present day.

    Doyle, Arthur Conan, The Boscombe Valley Mystery, in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, first published in the Strand Magazine in 1891.

    Holroyd, James Edward, editor, Seventeen Steps to 221B: A Sherlockian Collection by English Writers, 1967

    Rennison, Nick, Sherlock Holmes: The Unauthorized Biography, 2005

    “Sir Desmond MacCarthy: 1877-1952,” The Sherlock Holmes Journal 1, no. 2, (September 1952),

    Starrett, Vincent, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, 1933

    The Listener Historical Archive. Web. Contains the text of all six biographies. Access to the archive is available through some libraries.

    Thomson, June, Holmes and Watson: A Study in Friendship, 1995

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  • The Canon

    Before we go any further and, despite the appearance from time to time of what their authors suggest are previously undiscovered cases that Holmes was involved in, it is to the original cases that you should first turn to understand the Great Detective’s singular talents.

    These 56 short stories and 4 novels are usually referred to as “The Canon”.

    In order of their publication, these are (with their usual abbreviation in brackets):

    1. A Study in Scarlet [STUD] 
    2. The Sign of Four [SIGN]
    3. A Scandal in Bohemia [SCAN]
    4. The Red-Headed League [REDH]
    5. A Case of Identity [IDEN]
    6. The Boscombe Valley Mystery [BOSC]
    7. The Five Orange Pips [FIVE]
    8. The Man with the Twisted Lip [TWIS]
    9. The Blue Carbuncle [BLUE]
    10. The Speckled Band [SPEC]
    11. The Engineer’s Thumb [ENGR]
    12. The Noble Bachelor [NOBL]
    13. The Beryl Coronet [BERY]
    14. The Copper Beeches [COPP]
    15. Silver Blaze [SILV]
    16. The Cardboard Box [CARD]
    17. The Yellow Face [YELL]
    18. The Stockbroker’s Clerk [STOC]
    19. The Gloria Scott [GLOR]
    20. The Musgrave Ritual [MUSG]
    21. The Reigate Squire [REIG]
    22. The Crooked Man [CROO]
    23. The Resident Patient [RESI]
    24. The Greek Interpreter [GREE]
    25. The Naval Treaty [NAVA]
    26. The Final Problem [FINA]
    27. The Hound of the Baskervilles [HOUN]
    28. The Empty House [EMPT]
    29. The Norwood Builder [NORW]
    30. The Dancing Men [DANC]
    31. The Solitary Cyclist [SOLI]
    32. The Priory School [PRIO]
    33. Black Peter [BLAC]
    34. Charles Augustus Milverton [CHAS]
    35. The Six Napoleons [SIXN]
    36. The Three Students [3STU]
    37. The Golden Pince-Nez [GOLD]
    38. The Missing Three-Quarter [MISS]
    39. The Abbey Grange [ABBE]
    40. The Second Stain [SECO]
    41. Wisteria Lodge [WIST]
    42. The Bruce-Partington Plans [BRUC]
    43. The Devil’s Foot [DEVI]
    44. The Red Circle [REDC]
    45. The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax [LADY]
    46. The Dying Detective [DYIN]
    47. The Valley of Fear [VALL]
    48. His Last Bow [LAST]
    49. The Mazarin Stone [MAZA]
    50. Thor Bridge [THOR]
    51. The Creeping Man [CREE]
    52. The Sussex Vampire [SUSS]
    53. The Three Garridebs [3GAR]
    54. The Illustrious Client [ILLU]
    55. The Three Gables [3GAB]
    56. The Blanched Soldier [BLAN]
    57. The Lion’s Mane [LION]
    58. The Retired Colourman [RETI]
    59. The Veiled Lodger [VEIL]
    60. Shoscombe Old Place [SHOS]

    The Canon can be found in many forms.

    1. The Complete Sherlock Holmes comprising all 60 stories.
    2. The Four Long Stories (STUD, SIGN, HOUN and VALL).
    3. The 56 Short Stories.
    4. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (SCAN, REDH, IDEN, BOSC, FIVE, TWIS, BLUE, SPEC, ENGR, NOBL, BERY and COPP).
    5. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (SILV, YELL, STOC, GLOR, MUSG, REIG, CROO, RESI, GREE, NAVA and FINA).
    6. The Return of Sherlock Holmes (EMPT, NORW, DANC, SOLI, PRIO, BLACK, CHAS, SIXN, 3STU, GOLD, MISS, ABBE and SECO).
    7. His Last Bow (WIST, CARD, REDC, BRUC, DYIN, LADY, DEVI and LAST).
    8. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (ILLU, BLAN, MAZA, 3GAB, SUSS, 3GAR, THOR, CREE, LION, VEIL, SHOS, RETI).

    The Cardboard Box [CARD], although published in The Strand Magazine between Silver Blaze [SILV] and The Yellow Face [YELL] was not published in the Memoirs but 24 years later in His Last Bow.

    A guide to the Sherlock Holmes Canon is available here.

  • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at the BBC

    This short note is to advertise a series of articles about Sherlock Holmes appearances on the radio and television stations of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

    The BBC was originally formed as the British Broadcasting Company in 1923 by a consortium of radio equipment manufacturers to produce broadcasts across Great Britain and Northern Ireland to improve sales of their equipment. Up until that point, the only broadcasts that could be received were from foreign stations plus a few home-based amateur broadcasters.

    The first broadcast to reference Sherlock Holmes was in 1929 and was one of a short series of biographies of well-known real or imaginary figures. The third of these “Miniature Biographies” was of Dr Watson and from that point the BBC has produced many pioneering broadcasts featuring Holmes in one form or another.

    This series of articles will chronicle Sherlock Holmes at the BBC and the first of these will deal with the broadcast of the biography of the Good Doctor.

  • Being a reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., Late of the Army Medical Department

    This is the byline from A Study In Scarlet, the first of 56 Sherlock Holmes stories narrated by his friend and colleague, John H Watson MD.

    According to the Doctor, his Reminiscences comprise three volumes. Volume 1 chronicles his early life leading up to his return to England after being invalided out of the British Army after being wounded at the Battle of Maiwand in 1880.

    Volume 2 comprises the adventures with Sherlock Holmes from their meeting at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London in 1881 up to their final case together, His Last Bow, in 1914.

    Volume 3 covers the Doctor’s move away from Baker Street after Holmes’ retirement up until the Doctor’s passing in 1948, aged 94.

    Apart from the published Sherlock Holmes stories, none of the volumes of the Reminiscences exist apart from the few privately published copies none of which seem to have survived. All that remain are the publisher’s returned proofs, the Doctor’s original manuscripts, plus the large collection of the Doctor’s notebooks (mainly of Sherlock Holmes’ cases). All this is purported to be in the travel-worn and battered tin dispatch-box with his name, “John H. Watson, MD, Late Indian Army”, painted upon the lid and which, as the Doctor describes in the introduction to The Problem of Thor Bridge, was left in the vaults of Cox & Co, Charing Cross, London. The problem of locating this treasure trove will be dealt with at a later date.

    In the meantime, as Dr Watson’s Literary Agent, I have both the honour and responsibility to publish his notes, alongside observations of my own on the affairs of the world’s greatest consulting detective.