John H. Watson, known as Dr. Watson, along with Sherlock Holmes, first appeared in the novel A Study in Scarlet (1887). Part one of A Study in Scarlet is subtitled “Being a reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., Late of the Army Medical Department”. Watson studied at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, receiving his medical degree from the University of London in 1878, and subsequently being trained at Netley as an assistant surgeon in the British Army. He joined British forces in India with the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers before being attached to the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot, saw service in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, was wounded at the Battle of Maiwand (July 1880) by a jezail bullet, suffered enteric fever and was sent back to England on the troopship HMS Orontes following his recovery. With his health ruined, he was then given a daily pension of 11 shillings and 6 pence for nine months. In 1881, Watson is introduced by his friend Stamford to Holmes, who is looking for someone to share rent at a flat in 221B Baker Street. Concluding that they are compatible, they subsequently move into the flat. When Watson notices multiple eccentric guests frequenting the flat, Holmes reveals that he is a “consulting detective” and that the guests are his clients. Watson witnesses Holmes’s skills of deduction on their first case together, concerning a series of murders related to Mormon intrigue. When the case is solved, Watson is angered that Holmes is not given any credit for it by the press. When Holmes refuses to record and publish his account of the adventure, Watson endeavours to do so himself. In time, Holmes and Watson become close friends. In The Sign of the Four, Watson becomes engaged to Mary Morstan, a governess. In “The Adventure of the Empty House”, a reference by Watson to “my own sad bereavement” implies that Morstan has died by the time Holmes returns after faking his death; that fact is confirmed when Watson moves back to Baker Street to share lodgings with Holmes. Throughout Doyle’s novels, Watson is presented as Holmes’s biographer. In the later stories, written after Holmes’s retirement (c. 1903–04), Watson repeatedly refers to “notes of many hundreds of cases to which I have never alluded”, on grounds that after Holmes’s retirement, the detective showed reluctance “to the continued publication of his experiences. So long as he was in actual professional practice the records of his successes were of some practical value to him, but since he has definitely retired… notoriety has become hateful to him” (“The Adventure of the Second Stain”). Holmes regularly referred to Watson as my “faithful friend and biographer”, and once exclaims, “I am lost without my Boswell”. In A Study in Scarlet, having just returned from Afghanistan, Watson is described “as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut.” In subsequent texts, he is variously described as strongly built, of a stature either average or slightly above average, with a thick, strong neck and a small moustache. Watson is intelligent, if lacking in Holmes’s insight, and serves as a perfect foil for Holmes: the archetypal late Victorian/Edwardian gentleman against the brilliant, emotionally detached analytical machine. Furthermore, he is considered an excellent doctor and surgeon, especially by Holmes.
First Appearance “A Study in Scarlet” serialized in Beeton’s Christmas Annual (1887)
First Publisher Ward Lock & Co
Appearance List Novels: A Study in Scarlet (1887), The Sign of the Four (1890), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901–1902), The Valley of Fear (1914–1915). The 56 short stories are collected in five books: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892, with original illustrations by Sidney Paget), The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894), The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905), His Last Bow (1917), The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1927). Over 25,000 stage adaptations, films, television productions and publications, including comics.
Sample Read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes [PG]
Description John H. Watson, known as Dr. Watson, along with Sherlock Holmes, first appeared in the novel A Study in Scarlet (1887). Part one of A Study in Scarlet is subtitled “Being a reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D., Late of the Army Medical Department”. Watson studied at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, receiving his medical degree from the University of London in 1878, and subsequently being trained at Netley as an assistant surgeon in the British Army. He joined British forces in India with the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers before being attached to the 66th (Berkshire) Regiment of Foot, saw service in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, was wounded at the Battle of Maiwand (July 1880) by a jezail bullet, suffered enteric fever and was sent back to England on the troopship HMS Orontes following his recovery. With his health ruined, he was then given a daily pension of 11 shillings and 6 pence for nine months. In 1881, Watson is introduced by his friend Stamford to Holmes, who is looking for someone to share rent at a flat in 221B Baker Street. Concluding that they are compatible, they subsequently move into the flat. When Watson notices multiple eccentric guests frequenting the flat, Holmes reveals that he is a “consulting detective” and that the guests are his clients. Watson witnesses Holmes’s skills of deduction on their first case together, concerning a series of murders related to Mormon intrigue. When the case is solved, Watson is angered that Holmes is not given any credit for it by the press. When Holmes refuses to record and publish his account of the adventure, Watson endeavours to do so himself. In time, Holmes and Watson become close friends. In The Sign of the Four, Watson becomes engaged to Mary Morstan, a governess. In “The Adventure of the Empty House”, a reference by Watson to “my own sad bereavement” implies that Morstan has died by the time Holmes returns after faking his death; that fact is confirmed when Watson moves back to Baker Street to share lodgings with Holmes. Throughout Doyle’s novels, Watson is presented as Holmes’s biographer. In the later stories, written after Holmes’s retirement (c. 1903–04), Watson repeatedly refers to “notes of many hundreds of cases to which I have never alluded”, on grounds that after Holmes’s retirement, the detective showed reluctance “to the continued publication of his experiences. So long as he was in actual professional practice the records of his successes were of some practical value to him, but since he has definitely retired… notoriety has become hateful to him” (“The Adventure of the Second Stain”). Holmes regularly referred to Watson as my “faithful friend and biographer”, and once exclaims, “I am lost without my Boswell”. In A Study in Scarlet, having just returned from Afghanistan, Watson is described “as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut.” In subsequent texts, he is variously described as strongly built, of a stature either average or slightly above average, with a thick, strong neck and a small moustache. Watson is intelligent, if lacking in Holmes’s insight, and serves as a perfect foil for Holmes: the archetypal late Victorian/Edwardian gentleman against the brilliant, emotionally detached analytical machine. Furthermore, he is considered an excellent doctor and surgeon, especially by Holmes.
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