George Barnden

From The Arthur Conan Doyle Encyclopedia
Ad for the Gresham Life Assurance Society accompanying the Conan Doyle's poem The Lay of the Grasshopper (1883).

George Barnden was the district superintendent of the Gresham Life Assurance Society for Hampshire. He was based in Southsea (Portsmouth) and was a friend of Arthur Conan Doyle which worked as a medical examiner for the company.

In 1883, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a poem The Lay of the Grasshopper used in an advertising of the Gresham Life Assurance Society.

In march 1883, Conan Doyle wrote to his mother that he and "Barnden have been thinking of making an insuring raid on Edinburgh..." In another letter, Conan Doyle mentioned that Mr. Barnden wished him to go to a ball. [1]

In the article Southsea: Three Days in Search of Effects (22 june 1883, British Journal of Photography) Conan Doyle described his photographic visit of Southsea. At the end, "a last stroll was taken about the town under the guidance of Mr. Barnden, the well-known superintendent of the Gresham Insurance Society".




  1. Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters, by J. Lellenberg, D. Stashower & C. Foley (HarperPress, USA, 2007)