51 Arthur Conan Doyle Facts For Kids To Learn About The British Writer

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born on May 22, 1859, in Edinburgh (Scotland) and died on July 7, 1930, in Crowborough (England).

He was a Scottish author best known for creating the detective Sherlock Holmes, among the most brilliant and memorable figures in English fiction.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a multi-faceted personality who worked as a doctor, journalist, writer, and public figure and created the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle turned to nonfiction when his emotions got the best of him.

Military writings such as 'The Great Boer War' (1900) and 'The British Campaign in France and Flanders, six vol.' (1916–20) were among his works, as were subjects such as Belgian atrocities in the Congo during Leopold II's reign in 'The Crime of the Congo' (1909).

There were also works speaking of his involvement in the actual criminal cases of George Edalji and Oscar Slater.

Facts About Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Doyle's favorite character, Sherlock Holmes, was killed off in 1893, only to be revived a decade later after public pressure and monetary inducement. Many of the author's fans and followers are unaware of some facts about him.

• Conan is merely one of his middle two names, not part of his surname.
• Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle is his full name.
• He began adopting 'Conan' as part of his nickname soon after graduating.
• Doyle played cricket on the same side as JM Barrie, the author of 'Peter Pan'.
• Arthur Conan Doyle produced a hilarious drawing of himself obtaining his Master of Surgery and Bachelor of Medicine degree with the tagline 'Licensed to Kill' after receiving his certificate.
• Another investigator, James Bond, used it as a tagline.
• Doyle opened an ophthalmology practice in London.
• But he never saw a single patient, so he turned to writing to pass the time.
• He was pals with Harry Houdini, the famous illusionist, but their friendship ended when Conan Doyle and his wife summoned him for a seance.
• He worked as a ship surgeon aboard a whaling ship bound for the Arctic Circle in his third year of medical school.
• The term dinosaur had just been around for 200 years when Doyle wrote his book, 'The Lost World', in 1912. Doyle died in his yard on July 7, 1930, grasping a flower.
• Doyle expressed an interest in volunteering as a soldier during the Boer War.
• However, he was turned down as he was overweight.
• He eventually enlisted as a medical officer on a sea voyage for Africa because he was unable to serve as a soldier.
• It was this encounter that prompted him to create 'The Captain of the Polestar'.
• Doyle ran for the House of Commons twice, in 1900 and 1906.
• He did collect a significant amount of votes, but he was never able to win.

Arthur Conan Doyle's Writings

Conan Doyle was a medical student when his lecturer, Dr. Joseph Bell, astonished him by his ability to notice even the tiniest detail about a patient's health.

• Conan Doyle's literary invention, Sherlock Holmes, was inspired by this master of diagnostic deduction.
• The debut book of Doyle got misplaced in the mail.
• He wrote the first book at the age of 23 and had it mailed to a publisher.
• Yet the post was misplaced, and he ended up rewriting the work for 150 pages before giving up.
• To this day, the mail and novel are still a secret.
• Sherlock holmes first featured in 'A Study in Scarlet', a short story released in Beeton's Christmas Annual of 1887.
• Conan Doyle's medical studies and experiences are also depicted in his semiautobiographical books 'The Firm of Girdlestone' and 'The Stark Munro Letters', as well as his compilation of medical short fiction 'Round the Red Lamp'.
• His creation of Sherlock Holmes, the 'world's first and only private detective', contrasted dramatically with the paranormal ideas discussed in 'The Mystery of Cloomber', a brief story published around the same time.
• Conan Doyle's initial interest in both mystical experiences and scientifically based evidence represented the complex, diametrically contradictory views he battled through his life.
• Conan Doyle also authored historical novels, dramas, and poems
• He believed his detective fiction took precedence over his other, more significant works.
• Doyle established a medical business in Elm Grove, Southsea, at Bush Villas.
• The experiment failed miserably. Doyle went back to writing fiction as he awaited patients.

Arthur Conan Doyle's Education

Conan Doyle began his seven-year Jesuit schooling in Lancashire, England, during 1868, as the second of Mary Foley and Charles Altamont Doyle's 10 children.

• Conan Doyle went for an additional year of education in Feldkirch, Austria.
• He studied for admittance into the University of Edinburgh's Medical School with the help of his mother's renter, Dr. Bryan Charles Waller.
• After completing his dissertation, 'An Essay upon the Vasomotor Changes in Tabes Dorsalis', he gained a Master of Surgery and Bachelor of Medicine from Edinburgh by 1881 as well as an M.D. in 1885.

Arthur Conan Doyle's Family

Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1859.

• His father, artist Charles Doyle, battled alcoholism.
• Conan Doyle noted in his autobiography that the family's financial situation was always tense: 'We lived in the sturdy and exhilarating atmosphere of poverty'. Because of his unpredictable behavior, Charles was eventually confined to an asylum.
• In 1885, Conan Doyle wedded Louisa Hawkins, and the couple had two children, Mary and Kingsley.
• He remarried Jean Leckie the year after Louisa's demise in 1906, and they had three children: Adrian, Denis, and Jean.
• Mary Foley Doyle, the author's mother, was a calming presence during this familial turmoil. Conan Doyle complimented her for sparking his creativity and narrative ability.
• Conan Doyle became involved in the murder of Marion Gilchrist, a wealthy old lady of Glasgow, in 'The Strange Case of Oscar Slater'.
• He found additional evidence, summoned witnesses back, and challenged the prosecution's testimony, all of which was subsequently released as a plea for Slater's pardon.
• As a young doctor, Conan Doyle started to research mystical concepts concerning spirits and the afterlife.
• Later in life, he became the most well-known proponent of mysticism, a movement based on the notion that the souls of the dead may contact the present through a medium.
• Although Holmes was a skeptic, Arthur Conan Doyle trusted in fairies.
• He was persuaded by the famous 1917 hoax, the Cuttingly Fairy photos.
• He even invested 1 million dollars advertising them and authored a book about their integrity, 'The Coming of the Fairies'.
• After Conan Doyle signed a contract with the Strand Magazine to print a collection of short stories featuring the brilliant investigator, Sherlock Holmes' fame exploded.
• Conan Doyle had become one of the top authors of his time when readers lined up at newsagents on the days when new issues were released.