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Dr. Watson
Watson
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson

Real Name

John H. Watson

First Appearance

A Study in Scarlet (originally serialized in Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887)

Original Publisher

Ward Lock & Co

Created by

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Background[]

Paget holmes

Dr. Watson (left) and Sherlock Holmes, by Sidney Paget.

Dr. John H. Watson was Sherlock Holmes' closest friend, assistant, and flatmate. Watson was also Holmes' biographer and the narrator of all but four stories in the Sherlock Holmes canon.

Watson graduated with a medical degree from the University of London in 1878, and later became a surgeon in the British Army. While in the Army, he joined British forces in India and saw service in the Second Anglo-Afghan War. However his military service was cut short after being wounded at the Battle of Maiwand. He was sent back to England to recover.

After returning to London in 1881, Watson takes the advice of an old friend of his named Stamford, that an acquaintance of his, Sherlock Holmes, is looking for someone to split the rent at a flat in 221B Baker Street. Sherlock eventually agrees to allow Watson to be his flatmate.

After their first case together which concerned a series of murders related to Mormon intrigue, Watson was angered that Holmes is not given any credit for it by the press for solving the crime. When Holmes refused to record and publish his account of the adventure, Watson decided to become his biographer. In time, Holmes and Watson become close friends going on many adventures together.

During their adventures, Watson met Sherlock's older brother Mycroft as well as Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard who would have Holmes consult on cases.

In The Sign of the Four, John Watson becomes engaged to Mary Morstan, a governess. However, she passed away by time Holmes returned from his faked death in the Final Problem, but Watson later re-marries. However, this wife was never named, described, or explained by Conan Arthur Doyle.

Public Domain Literary Appearances[]

Novels[]

Short stories[]

Public Domain Comic Appearances[]

  • Cartoons by McCutcheon #[nn]
  • Four Color #1169,1245
  • Kid Eternity #8

Public Domain Stage Appearances[]

  • Sherlock Holmes: A Drama in Four Acts, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and William Gillette (1899)
  • The Speckled Band, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)

Public Domain Film & TV[]

  • Sherlock Holmes Solves the Sign of the Four (1913)
  • A Study in Scarlet (1914)
  • Der Hund von Baskerville (1914)
  • The Crimson Sabre (1915)
  • The Crogmere Ruby (1915)
  • Sherlock Holmes (1916)
  • The Valley of Fear (1916)
  • Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Series (1921-1923)
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles (1921)
  • Sherlock Holmes (1922)
  • The Speckled Band (1931)
  • The Sign of Four (1932)
  • Study in Scarlet (1933)
  • The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes (1935)
  • Murder at the Baskervilles (1937)
  • Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon (1943)
  • The Woman in Green (1945)
  • Terror by Night (1946)
  • Dressed to Kill (1946)
  • Sherlock Holmes TV Series (1954)

See Also[]

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