View source for Sir A. Conan Doyle (Sheffield Daily Telegraph)


''Sir A. Conan Doyle'' is an article published in [[The Sheffield Daily Telegraph]] on 8 july 1930.

Obituary of [[Arthur Conan Doyle]].


== Sir A. Conan Doyle Dead ==
[[File:sheffield-daily-telegraph-1930-07-08-sir-a-conan-doyle-p5.jpg|thumb|200px|right|[[The Sheffield Daily Telegraph]] (8 july 1930, p. 5)]]

'''Creator of "Sherlock Holmes" Dead.'''

'''NOTABLE CAREER.'''

'''Fatal illness After Lecture Tour on Spiritualism.'''

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died at Crowborough, yesterday morning. At the bedside were Lady Conan Doyle, two sons, and one daughter.

Sir Arthur had lived at Crowborough for the past 22 years. He had taken a great interest in local sports, especially billiards.

He had been ill since November last, and his illness is attributed to his work in Scandinavia in October when he gave a series of lectures on Spiritualism. 

'''SPECIAL MEMOIR.'''

"I have had a life," wrote Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in the preface to his reminiscences, "which, for variety and romance, could, I think, hardly be exceeded. I have known what it was to be a poor man, and I have known what it was to be fairly affluent. I have sampled every kind of human experience. I have known many of the most remarkable men of my time. I have had a long literary career after a medical training which gave me the M.D. of Edinburgh. I have tried my hand at very many sports, including boxing, cricket, billiards, motoring, football, aeronautics and ski-ing, having been the first to introduce the latter for long journeys into Switzerland.

"I have travelled as Doctor to a whaler for seven months in the Arctic, and afterwards in the West Coast of Africa. I have seen something of three wars, the Sudanese, the South African and the German. My life has been dotted with adventures of all kinds. Finally I have been constrained to devote my latter years to telling the world the final result of 36 years' study of the occult, and in endeavouring to make it realise the overwhelming importance of the question. In this mission I have travelled more than 50,000 miles and addressed 300,000 people, besides writing seven books upon the subject."

'''A Double Reputation."

Out of all the things that he did Conan Doyle leaves behind him a double reputation, as story-teller and as spiritualist, and it is possible that something of both capacities was bequeathed to him by his Scottish forbears. He was also a champion of one another; his successful championship of Oscar Slater was an outstanding instance.

He was born in Picardy Place, Edinburgh, in 1859, and was the grandson of John Doyle, the caricaturist, and the nephew of "Dicky" Doyle of "Punch" fame. His father, too, had real artistic skill, though he never had of developing it.

Doyle's boyhood, he told us, was Spartan and even more Spartan at the Edinburgh school, which he attended before, at the age of 10, he was sent to Hodder, the preparatory school for Stonyhurst, the famous Roman Catholic public school in Lancashire. He spent two years at Hodder, and seven under the Jesuits at Stonyhurst. After Stonyhurst came a year in Germany, and then, in 1876, he went to Edinburgh University where he took his degree in medicine in 1881. The University seems to have had no special formative influences, except that it was there that he came into with John Bell <ref>Wrong name, it's [[Joseph Bell]].</ref>, the surgeon, whose keen face and wonderful skill at diagnosis made him the original of [[Sherlock Holmes]].

'''As Doctor in Sheffield.'''

Conan Doyle's first venture in medicine brought him, strangely enough, to Sheffield, where, for three weeks, he assisted a Dr. Richardson, whose practice was in a poor part of the city. The connection was evidently not a happy one, for it came to an end by mutual consent. Doyle had, by this time, become an agnostic, and although he had already some interest in psychic phenomena, his philosophy was still thoroughly materialistic.

After the two voyages referred to in the preface already quoted (the first the series of travels that were to give such variety to his life), he settled in Southsea, and started a practice there which he kept up for eight years. It was not a lucrative business, according to his own account. "I made £154 the first year and £250 the second, rising slowly to £300, which, in eight years, I never passed, so far as medical practice went. In the first year the income-tax paper arrived, it up to show I was not liable. They returned the paper with 'Most unsatisfactory' scrawled across it. I wrote 'I entirely agree' under the words, and returned it at once."

'''£25 for Famous Novel.'''

But his fortunes were soon to change. About this time he had his first literary successes with some short stories in "[[The Cornhill Magazine|The Cornhill]]," and in 1886 the copyright of "[[A Study in Scarlet]]," the first of the famous Sherlock Holmes novels, was sold for the magnificent sum of £25!

In spite of the smallness of the sum, it marked the beginning of better days for Conan Doyle. The famous partnership of Watson and Holmes went on in story after story, and their creator proved himself a most admirable teller of tales in "[[The Sign of Four]]," "[[The White Company]]," "[[Sherlock Holmes]]," "[[The Hound of the Baskervilles]]," and others.

With his books of verse, "[[Songs of Action]]" and "[[Songs of the Road]]," and with his plays, "[[A Story of Waterloo]]," "[[The Speckled Band: An Adventure of Sherlock Holmes|The Speckled Band]]," "[[Brigadier Gerard]]," and "[[The Fires of Fate (play 1909)|The Fires of Fate]]," he made a certain mark, but his name as a poet and a dramatist was never anything like so great as his name as a novelist.

All the time he was writing there went on the unending series of his adventures. The year 1894 saw him lecturing in America, and the next years saw him in Egypt. Then, after an interval at Hindhead, there came the Boer War with a whole range of new experience. Doyle went to Africa with the medical service, and there spent some exciting and dangerous but stimulating years.

'''Candidate for Parliament.'''

On his return he stood for Parliament, but on being unsuccessful did not try again. His other activities were still endlessly varied, and included sport of every kind and even the playing of a part in commerce. For 21 years director of Messrs. [[Raphael Tuck]], and always retained the most delightful memories of that association.

As year followed year the psychic question became for him of greater significance and importance,  and began to leave his romance writing for definite psychical propaganda. His spiritualistic books, written before and after the war, include "[[The Wanderings of a Spiritualist]]," "[[The Coming of the Fairies]]," "[[The New Revelation]]," "[[The Vital Message]]," and "[[Spiritualism and Rationalism with a Drastic Examination of Mr. Joseph McCabe|Spiritualism and Rationalism]]."

In 1914 Conan Doyle was on holiday with his family in the Rocky Mountains, but with the outbreak of war he was back in England, writing eagerly, and keen to play a part. He was sent on missions to the British and Italian Fronts, and had ample opportunity of gaining an insight into the conditions of modern warfare.

'''Psychic Revelation.'''

As he lost son, brothers, and friends, he became more and more sure of the data of spiritualistic revelation. His wife, who had long been sceptical, became wholly converted to his way of thinking, and after the war the two devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the spreading of what they believed to be their special message. Writing and speaking and travelling far and wide on the face of the earth, they spared themselves not at all, and if it was difficult to understand their belief, it was not possible to doubt their good faith.

Until his death Conan Doyle conceived it as his mission to spread the doctrine of psychic revelation. Life, with its supreme and incalculable irony, will probably preserve his fame as the creator of Sherlock Holmes — the detective beloved by millions. 

<div align="right">A. G. C.</div>

'''"You are Wonderful."'''

Sir Arthur, who was 71, died at 9.30 yesterday morning, following a heart attack on Saturday. He was unconscious at the time. The last words he uttered were, "You are wonderful." They were addressed, with tender smile, to his wife.

The funeral will probably be at Groombridge on Thursday at noon.

Mr. [[Denis Percy Stewart Conan Doyle|Dennis Conan Doyle]] <ref>Wrong spelling, it's [[Denis Percy Stewart Conan Doyle|Denis Conan Doyle]].</ref>, one of his sons, stated yesterday that by heading deputation to the Home Secretary last Tuesday, and urging an alteration of the "unfair laws" relating to mediums, while in an unfit state, Sir Arthur probably hastened his end.

His whole family shared Sir Arthur's implicit belief in survival after death and communication between the dead and the living. His wife, sons, and daughters are convinced that they will speedily have greetings from him from "the other side."

"He was a great man and splendid father," said Mr. [[Adrian Malcolm Conan Doyle|A. C. Doyle]] in a tribute to his father, "and he was loved — and was happy because he knew it — by all of us.

"My mother and father were still the lovers they were on the day they were married. Their devotion to each other was one of the most wonderful things I have ever known. She nursed him right through his illness to the end — just as she, like all of us, had been about the world with him."

'''Sir Oliver Lodge's Tribute.'''

Eulogising Sir Arthur's work for spiritualism, Sir Oliver Lodge said: "I fear the South African trip was too much for him. Much more than most of us, he regarded himself as apostle, or missionary, and threw himself and all his belongings into the movement.

"Even among those impressed with the magnitude of the issue, few are willing to sacrifice themselves to the same extent. His period of service is not ended."






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* [[Obituaries|Back to Obituaries]]
* [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle|Back to Conan Doyle]]