It now stands empty while conservationists and Conan Doyle fans fight to preserve it.Ī statue honours Conan Doyle at Crowborough Cross in Crowborough, where Conan Doyle lived for 23 years. His last words were directed toward his wife: 'You are wonderful.' The epitaph on his gravestone in the churchyard at Minstead in the New Forest, Hampshire, reads:Ĭonan Doyle's house, Undershaw, located in Hindhead, south of London, where he had lived for a decade, had been a hotel and restaurant between 19. With his second wife he had three children-Denis Percy Stewart (17 March 1909 – 9 March 1955), second husband in 1936 of Georgian Princess Nina Mdivani (circa 1910 – 19 February 1987 former sister-in-law of Barbara Hutton) Adrian Malcolm (19 November 1910–3 June 1970) and Jean Lena Annette (21 December 1912–18 November 1997).Ĭonan Doyle was found clutching his chest in the hall of Windlesham, his house in Crowborough, East Sussex, on 7 July 1930.

Two with his first wife-Mary Louise (28 January 1889 – 12 June 1976), and Arthur Alleyne Kingsley, known as Kingsley (15 November 1892 – 28 October 1918). Jean died in London on 27 June 1940.Ĭonan Doyle fathered five children. Due to his sense of loyalty he had maintained a purely platonic relationship with Jean while his first wife was alive. The following year he married Jean Elizabeth Leckie, whom he had first met and fallen in love with in 1897. She suffered from tuberculosis and died on 4 July 1906. In 1885 Conan Doyle married Louisa (or Louise) Hawkins, known as 'Touie'. He completed his doctorate on the subject of tabes dorsalis in 1885. Following his graduation, he was employed as a ship's doctor on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast. His first published story appeared in ' Chambers's Edinburgh Journal' before he was 20. While studying, Conan Doyle began writing short stories. This required that he provide periodic medical assistance in the towns of Aston (now a district of Birmingham) and Sheffield. He then went on to Stonyhurst College, leaving in 1875.įrom 1876 to 1881 he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather.Īt the age of nine Conan Doyle was sent to the Roman Catholic Jesuit preparatory school, Hodder Place, Stonyhurst. His baptism record in the registry of St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh gives 'Arthur Ignatius Conan' as his Christian name, and simply 'Doyle' as his surname. They were married in 1855.Īlthough he is now referred to as 'Conan Doyle', the origin of this compound surname (if that is how he meant it to be understood) is uncertain. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, a talented illustrator, was born in England of Irish descent, and his mother, born Mary Foley, was Irish. Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle was born the third of ten siblings on in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle