Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1914. Credit: Walter Benington, Wikimedia Commons

The author and creator of perhaps the world’s most famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, was also a medical doctor who attempted to specialise in ophthalmology. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, born in Edinburgh in 1859, studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh Medical School. After graduating with bachelor of medicine and master of surgery degrees in 1881, he joined the SS Mayumba’s crew as ship’s surgeon and travelled to West Africa.

A decade later, Dr Doyle took up ophthalmology studies in Vienna after a failed attempt at setting up his own independent practice back in England. Despite having studied in Germany as a youngster, Dr Doyle found it difficult to understand the German medical terms used in his course and quit his studies. After a period of travelling and another attempt at running an independent practice in London, he finally gave up medicine altogether. However, during that time, Sir Arthur had been busy writing short stories. Despite initial struggles to find a publisher, his first work featuring Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson, A Study in Scarlet, was accepted for publication by Ward Lock & Co on 20 November 1886, which gave Dr Doyle £25 (equivalent to £2,900/NZ$6,030 in 2019) in exchange for all rights to the story.

Knighted for his literary contributions in 1902, Sir Arthur wrote 56 short stories and four novels featuring Sherlock Holmes, seven historical novels (rated by critics as his best work), nine other novels, plus many short stories. He died of a heart attack at home in Sussex at the age of 71 on 7 July 1930.