On 22 May 1859, Arthur Conan Doyle was born at 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh.
Between 1868 and 1876 Doyle was educated in England and Austria.
From 1876 to 1881 Doyle studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School.
In 1885 Doyle received his M.D degree.
Dr. Doyle
Doyle’s MD thesis, 1885. Held at the University of Edinburgh, Ms 2600. In 1885 Doyle married Louisa Hawkins. Together they had 2 children: Arthur Alleyne Kingsley Doyle and Mary Louise Doyle.
In 1887 Doyle was initiated as a Freemason in Southsea. There he attended seances and sittings with mediums.
In 1887 A Study in Scarlet was published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual; the first story featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.
In 1890 The Sign of Four was published, the second Holmes novel.
In 1900 Doyle served as a medic for several months during the Boer War.
Doyle in South Africa
Dr. A. Conan Doyle in his tent at Bloemfontein, South Africa. [Meadville, Pa. ; St. Louis, Mo.: Keystone View Company] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2016645958/>. In 1901 The Hound of the Baskervilles was published.
In 1906 Doyle’s wife Louisa died after suffering from Tuberculosis for some years.
Married Jean Leckie (m. 1907-1930). Doyle and Jean had 3 children: Jean Conan Doyle, Adrian Conan Doyle, Denis Percy Stewart Doyle.
In 1912 Doyle’s novel The Lost World was published in parts between April and November in the Strand Magazine.
In 1920 Doyle travelled to Australia and America on spiritualist missionary work.
Doyle in New York
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and family looking over wall and pointing, New York City. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/89714868/> In 1922 Doyle’s spiritualist work The Coming of the Fairies was published, which supported the veracity of the Cottingley fairy photographs.
In 1924 Doyle published his autobiography Memories and Adventures. In the preface he writes that he has ‘sampled every kind of human experience.’
On July 7 1930, Arthur Conan Doyle died in Crowborough, East Sussex. He was age 71.
The Edinburgh Conan Doyle Project 