DOYLE, SIR ARTHUR CONAN English novelist, knighted in 1902, eldest son of the artist Charles Doyle, was born on May 22, 1859. He was educated at Stonyhurst Col lege, in Germany, and at Edinburgh University where he graduated M.B. in 1881 and M.D. in 1885. He was practising as a doctor in Southsea when he published A Study in Scarlet in 1887. Micah Clarke (1888), a tale of Monmouth's rebellion, The Sign of Four (1889), and The White Company (1891), a romance of Du Guesclin's time, followed. In Rodney Stone (1896) he drew an admirable sketch of the prince regent ; and he collected a popular series of stories of the Napoleonic wars in The Exploits of Briga dier Gerard (1896). In 1891 he attained immense popularity by The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which first appeared in The Strand Magazine. These ingenious stories of the success of the imperturbable Sherlock Holmes, who had made his first appear ance in A Study in Scarlet (1887), in detecting crime and disen tangling mystery, found a host of imitators. The novelist himself returned to his hero in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1893), The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), and The Return of Sher lock Holmes (1905). Other books by him include numerous novels; plays, The Story of Waterloo (1894), in which Sir Henry Irving played the leading part, The Fires of Fate (1909), The House of Temperley (1909), The Poison Belt (1913) ; two. books in defence of the British army in South Africa—The Great Boer War (190o) and The War in South Africa; its Causes and Con duct (1902). During the World War Doyle wrote propaganda for the Allies. His Cause and Conduct of the World War appeared in 12 languages besides English. In his later years Doyle was a con vinced spiritualist and a lecturer and writer on spiritualism. He died on July 7, 1930.
Among his later works were ; History of the British Campaign in France and Flanders (vols. i. to vi., 1915-20) ; A New Revelation (1918) ; History of Spiritualism (2 vols., 1926) ; and My Memories and Adventures (1924)•