SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE (Literature):

Born 1859, died 1930

Born Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle in Edinburgh on the 22nd May 1859 he was the third of ten siblings.

Conan Doyle studied Medicine at Edinburgh University and, following his 5 years of study, he was employed as Ship's Surgeon on the SS Mayumba for it's voyage to Africa.

He published his first short story at the age of 19.

It was only whilst living in Portsmouth, waiting for his new medical practice to take off, that Conan Doyle began writing again. It was in Beeton's Christmas Annual in 1887 that Arthur Conan Doyle's first significant story was published. It was "A Study in Scarlet" and heralded the arrival of one of Literature's greatest detectives, Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle himself acknowledged that Holmes was based in large part on his former tutor at University, Dr Joseph Bell, who was so well known for his deductive skills that he was apparently able to deduce a patient's illness simply by looking at them!