Who was R T Norman?

Late last year I posted about the 2024 Sherlockian Saturday at the Pratt. That post includes a link to the Youtube recording of the event, and my talk was about R T Norman. 

Who was R T Norman? Well, I was reading a list of Conan Doyle's favorite Sherlock stories, and it noted that R T Norman won the competition with the closest guess of ACD's list. Who was this Sherlockian, I wondered. Quite a lot of searching and reading convinced me that he had not previously been written about - or indeed himself published any Sherlockian articles that I could find.

And so, I started to seek him out - not sure if it would be successful, but thankfully I found him. The article on R T Norman was recently published in the Baker Street Journal. Here, I'm posting the original submitted draft, and adding in some extra images that provide deeper details and evidence of the statements in the article.

Who was R.T. Norman?

Matthew D. Hall

The March 1927 issue of the Strand Magazine announced a competition set by Arthur Conan Doyle. The author had selected his best twelve stories from among the first forty-four Sherlock Holmes short stories published, and provided that sealed list to the Editor. 

 

As a "little test of the opinion of the public" Doyle challenged readers to submit their list and see who could divine all twelve stories (the order of the stories was not judged). The winner would receive a prize of £100 and an autographed copy of "Memories and Adventures", with a further 100 readers with the next nearly correct entries also receiving a copy of the signed book. 

One thing I really wanted to find was an entry couple from the Strand Magazine - and Ira Matetsky was kind enough to source a copy of the magazine and share an image of the entry coupon. Several people helped by checking their records, including Toronto Public Library, without success. The coupon was included in the advertising section of the magazine - this section at the front of the magazine was removed when issues were bound together into hardcover volumes.

The Strand article carried a numbered illustration from each of the eligible stories, and a coupon was provided in the magazine for entrants to number the twelve stories for their entry. Given these competition parameters, there were 21,090,682,613 possible entry combinations of twelve stories!

Three months later, the June 1927 edition of the Strand announced that "The prize of £100 has been won by Mr. R. T. Norman, Spring Hill, Wellingborough. Northants, who correctly named ten stories of the twelve selected by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as the best."  

Seven entrants correctly guessed nine of the stories, and many guessed eight, and autographed books were distributed accordingly. The announcement was followed by a brief essay by Doyle rationalizing his selection of the twelve best Sherlock Holmes stories, and sharing the list : The Speckled Band ; The Red-Headed League ; The Dancing Men ; The Final Problem ; A Scandal in Bohemia ; The Empty House ; The Five Orange Pips ; The Second Stain ; The Devil's Foot ; The Priory School ; The Musgrave Ritual ; The Reigate Squires. This list has been the source of much Sherlockian discussion, collected and published with accompanying essays (for example 'The Baker Street Dozen' ) and stimulated a number of other lists achieved via debate and voting.

Who was this victorious but almost anonymous R. T. Norman? Surely someone who could best estimate Doyle's favorite Holmes stories is worthy of Sherlockian recognition. The Strand announcement did not feature a photograph or an interview with Norman, and the only press attention was a brief note in Norman's local Northampton Mercury that provided no other information. For Norman it appears there was 15 minutes of Sherlockian fame, and a handy check worth about US$5,000 in 2024.

Research in newspaper articles and official records reveals that R. T. Norman was Raymond Thomas Norman (1889-1956), and at the time of winning the Sherlock Holmes Competition he was a Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at Durham University . 

Norman was born in 1888 in Wellingborough (indexed as Thomas Raymond Norman but appearing as R. T. throughout his life), his father being known for founding Norman's Store in the town.  R.T. Norman was educated at Wellingborough School, and attended the University of London (BA 1908, MA 1913). The 1911 census shows Norman listed as a schoolmaster at Kent College, Canterbury. 

When war broke out, Norman was "on the point of going to Oxford University" but joined the Inns of Court Rifles in London and entered the Officer Training Corps. He was commissioned into the 7^th Cheshires and served in Egypt and Palestine before being moved to France in 1918. There, Norman was transferred to the 102nd Light Trench Mortar Battery, and was engaged in action on the Western Front in the last days of the war. In January 1919 newspapers carried an announcement that R. T. Norman was awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre "for gallantry during the fighting at Menin and on the Scheldt in October 1918".

Following repatriation on the conclusion of the war, Norman enrolled at Balliol College at the University of Oxford as a relatively senior student aged over thirty, earning an MA. Norman was known for his sporting prowess, representing his County in both tennis and field hockey, and he continued these activities at Oxford where he earned a Blue for hockey. Photographs of the Balliol Hockey XI and Tennis VI from 1919 to 1922 show a clean-shaven man with an intense gaze and athletic appearance (see for example Figure 1).

Figure 1. Cropped image of R. T. Norman from photograph of the 1921-1922 Balliol College hockey team, Oxford University. (Balliol archives PHOT 24.23). This photograph has been reproduced by kind permission of Gillman & Soame photographers.

Following graduation, Norman appears to have embarked upon his career as Lecturer in Classics and Ancient History at Durham University, a career that last thirty years. 1927 was a banner year for Norman. Along with winning £100 in the Sherlock competition, he married fellow Wellingborough local Bessie Burkitt . Together, they had two daughters Ann (1932) and Elizabeth (1936, called Buffy), and lived in Durham. 

Northampton Mercury - Friday 02 September 1927

A Durham University archives photograph taken outside Durham Castle in 1927 captures four members of a dining club called 'the Slowcoach Club’ including Raymond Norman (Figure 2). Perhaps his relaxed smile is a reflection of the prize money headed to the lunch table.

Figure 2. Durham Castle 1927 the Slowcoach Club. Left to right: E.F. Baxter, R.T. Norman, G.S. Conway and B. Colgrave. From Durham University Library and Collections CAST/B/16. This photograph has been reproduced by permission of Durham University. (Underneath I've placed a photo of the site of that photograph).

Norman continued at Durham University till retirement, living at 26 North Bailey, Durham. The 1939 Register (effectively a census) was performed to produce identity cards and ration books for wartime England, and Norman (with his family) is listed as as Lecturer in Ancient History and Philosophy. 

Norman's involvement in Durham University life (social and academic) evident in the pages of the Durham University Journal. After retirement, the Normans relocated to 18 Hatton Ave, Wellingborough where he died suddenly on July 13th 1956, aged 67 years. Raymond T. Norman was cremated, and a final resting place has not been identified.

Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph - Monday 16 July 1956

Somewhere out there are 101 signed copies of Memories and Adventures, prizes from the Sherlock Holmes Competition. It would be interesting to know whether those inscriptions bear any specific reference to the competition. We don't know if R.T. Norman was a Sherlockian, and no evidence of articles by him on the topic have been identified. Nevertheless, his success in the 1927 competition predicting Conan Doyle's best stories warrants his place in Sherlockian memory. 

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I sincerely hope that a descendant sees this post - if so please get in touch, as I'd love to learn more about R T Norman and learn if the book is still in the family ! (email : cispt2 at gmail dot com)

Dear Kate - letter four of four

In my last posts I shared my recent article and talk I have on the earliest reference to 'A Study in Scarlet' by Conan Doyle.

That quote came from one of four letters held by the State Library of New South Wales, and I'm now posting each of the four letters with a transcription and some comments.

This third letter is RB/MSS004/3. This letter was likely written in 1893, and we will discuss dating.

12 Tennison Road

South Norwood

Dear Dan

So very glad to have a line from you, and to know that you and Kate are prospering. Your news surprised me, but at the same time I felt that the life would be congenial to you, so I rejoiced. I expect however that you are very far from having reached the end of your tether yet. From my heart I wish you all every happiness.

I am tied to my study at present for I am just beginning a huge book which was ordered long ago, which I must now get done with off hand. That means 4 or 5 months of steady grind, but when it is finished I shall hope to be able to meet you and have a chat over old times.

Yes, I have had several letters from Willy, who has, as I understand, taken unto himself a Japanese wife and child and settled down for life - I hope however that he may reconsider his plans. 

I have one little one, nearly three years old and very solid. When she has a grievance they know it all over this postal district. The wife is well, and, like yourself, I have been very happy since my marriage. I shall quite look forward to seeing you. Pray give my kindest remembrances to Kate, and excuse this very hurried little scribble. I am always hardworked, but just at present it has reached a climax. I have clinched my profession, as you may possibly have heard.

Goodbye, old chap - all good luck go with you all!

Yours as of yore

ACD

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This is the only one of the four ACD letters NOT sent from Southsea. Doyle lived at 12 Tennison Rd, South Norwood from June 1891 till 1894. In the letter, Doyle states "I have one little one, nearly three years old". This little one is Mary Louse Conan Doyle (1889–1976), born at Bush Villas, Southsea on 28 Jan 1889. For Mary to be almost three, the letter must have been written late 1891 or Jan 1892. 

This letter also differs from the previous three in that it is addressed to Dan, not Kate. It is a reconnection between them after several years (the previous letter that is extant was dated to 1885 and prior to Doyle's marraige). It is hoped that context about the Bryson's life will help understand why Doyle 'felt that the life would be congenial to you'.

What was the 'huge book which was ordered long ago' that Doyle was writing? Possibly it was The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard, which appeared late the following year.

'Willy' very clearly Doyle's Edinburgh friend William K. Burton. Doyle indicates he is still in correspondence with the Tokyo-based engineer, and notes that Burton has had a child with his Japanese partner. No detailed biography of Burton's life exists in English, but a biography in 'Britain and Japan: Biographical Portraits, Vol. IV' (2013) indicates that Burton had a child with a woman prior to his (British-recognized) 1892 marriage.

Doyle ends with a delightful understatement to an old friend:

I have clinched my profession, as you may possibly have heard.

How Doyle's life had changed since 1883/4/5 when Doyle and the Brysons corresponded and visited each other back and forth between London and Southsea.

The letter is signed off beautifully - 

Dear Kate - letter three of four

In my last posts I shared my recent article and talk I have on the earliest reference to 'A Study in Scarlet' by Conan Doyle.

That quote came from one of four letters held by the State Library of New South Wales, and I'm now posting each of the four letters with a transcription and some comments.

This third letter is RB/MSS004/1. This letter can be dated most precisely, as there are multiple references to stories being written published, and a reference to ACD's brother Innes' birthday.

 

1 Bush Villas

Southsea

Dear Kate

Many thanks for your kind letter, as also for Rudder Grange which is capital - as far as I have read. It is the freshest, most original thing that I have got hold of for a long time. I was eating my breakfast this morning when I read that part where Pomona is shot out through the port hole by the two men, under the impression that she is a burglar - and I choked over it, then my breakfast and I got mixed up in a dreadful manner and a plug of toast got wedged into my windpipe, and I perspired tea and tears to such an extent that I have not been able yet to regain my usual moral serenity - 'for all of which, Jew, I hold thee answerable."

Has Dan donned the kilt yet, and is he to be one of the 15000 warriors whom we expect at Easter, for if he is not there officially he had better in any case come down as a man of peace, and we shall hold high wassail. I have been in a state of fearful indigence for some time but there are symptoms that a good time is coming - in which case I shall kick up my little legs a bit.

Today is Innes' birthday, and some fiend of a friend has presented him with a sword and several other lethal weapons - with which he lays in wait for me in unexpected corners and demonstrates how the Arab of the Desert attacks the unsuspecting caravan, but suddenly fetching me a clip over the head, or butting me in the stomach with a lance, which Mrs. Smith usually uses as a broom handle.

You seem to have been having high jinks. I don't know when I was tight last - I have been disgustingly respectable for a very long time back. You tell me nothing of your Temple Bar venture. I have one "Our Midnight Visitor" in T.B. next month - a queer sort of clotted-blood kind of story which would have pleased Pomona. Likewise I have "The man with the mattock" in Belgravia - a trifle more ghastly than the last. "Barrington Cowles" in Cassell's which caps the lot. Also "The mysteries of a London Growler" in the same - Also "Modern Arctic Discovery" in Good Words, and "The Channel Tunnel" in a Cambridge Magazine - so I have been fairly prolific of late, besides grinding away at "John Smith" - a scurrilous pamphlet which I shall publish and afterwards spend a few years in seclusion in one of her Majesty's establishments on a charge of slander, libel, Arson and incest.

Tell Bill I have sent Arthur Laurie what he wanted. Likewise give Dan and him my love, and accept the same, my dear Kate, from 

Your affectionate friend

A Conan Doyle

P.S. Let me know if you are coming down and I will meet you and see you safe.

-----------

And so to some general comments. I'm creating a set of annotations for each letter. Separately I have been tracing the life of Kate Bryson and the provenance of the letters, so let's set that aside for this letter.

This letter was written on a 31 March, and addressed from Bush Villas. 

While the letter is undated, details in the letter allow very specific dating! Innes birthday was 31 March (1873) so the day/month is clear. 

As to the year, it is complex. Innes arrived at Southsea to live with ACD in July 1882, and left three years later in the middle of 1885, just prior to ACD's marriage. As such the years when Innes celebrated his birthday as a resident of Southsea were 1883, 1884, and 1885.

Doyle describes with some braggadocio a number of stories and articles he expects to be published that could help with dating. In some cases, Doyle may have been overly optimistic about where stories would be published.

ACD refers to his short story "Our Midnight Visitor" as being published "in T.B. next month". That story was published in Temple Bar in February 1891 - so one conclusion that can be drawn is that it was published with some delay compared with Doyle's original expectations.

"The man with the mattock, in Belgravia" was eventually published anonymously under the title 'A Pastoral Horror' in The People on 21 Dec 1890. 

Next is 'John Barrington Cowles', which was published in Cassell's in April 1884. In February 1884, ACD speculated to his mother that he may send the story to Cornhill.

"The mysteries of a London Growler" appeared as The Cabman's Story (sub-titled The Mysteries of a London "Growler") appeared in Cassell's on 17 May 1884

"Modern Arctic Discovery in Good Words" does not appear to have been published under this title, but may refer to The Glamour of the Arctic which appeared in July 1892.

"The Channel Tunnel in a Cambridge Magazine" is intriguing. Doyle published a letter in 1913 in the Times Magazine on the long-discussed concept of a tunnel between England and mainland Europe. The mention here suggests that Doyle had been meddling with the concept for some time.

And lastly Doyle points out these accomplishments "besides grinding away at "John Smith" - a scurrilous pamphlet". The story 'The Narrative on John Smith' was famously lost in the mail, re-written over a number of years from memory, then abandoned. Contemporary evidence including letters contained in 'A Life in Letters' that it was being written in 1883, and lost by February 1884 when Doyle informs his mother he will have to 'rewrite him from memory'.

In April 1884, ACD wrote to his mother and listed a similar set of stories as underway:

Where does this leave us? Based on all this evidence, it seems most likely that the letter was written on 31 March 1884.

---------

One other point reinforces 1884 as the year this letter was written. 'Has Dan decided to Don the kilt and is he to be one of the 15000 warriors....'. ACD is referring to a grand review of military Volunteers (reservists) on Portsdown Hill on Easter Monday April 14 (1884). Over 15,000 soldiers took part in this event, with estimates of up to 100,000 spectators! Doyle's question implies that Dan Bryson was a Volunteer. Geoffery Stavert (A Study in Southsea) points out that Doyle attended with a group of friends (did it include the Brysons?), and he wrote up the experience as 'Easter Monday with a Camera' in the British Journal of Photography.

'Rudder Grange' written by American author Frank R. Stockton was published in 1879, with a revised version published in 1885. It was a humorous novel set around a newly married couple who choose to live on a canal boat on a river in New Jersey. This domestic scenario is ripe for comedy, and leads to a range of misadventures for Euphemia and her husband, including a boarder named Pomona (an aspiring author, who at one point is launched through a porthole of the home/boat as a result of a case of mis).

'Bill' is William K Burton, Edinburgh friend who had relocated to London, and a fellow photography hobbyist.

'Mrs. Smith' was ACD's housekeeper in Southsea.

If only we knew what 'Arthur Laurie' wanted! Prof Arthur Pillans Laurie was a Scottish chemist and spectroscopist, who became an expert on studying paints, pigments, and dating paintings. At the time of this letter was written (1884) was based at King’s College, Cambridge where he was completing advanced studies. An interesting chemistry connection for ACD at a time when he was starting to think of creating a detective!

Dear Kate - letter two of four

In my last posts I shared my recent article and talk I have on the earliest reference to 'A Study in Scarlet' by Conan Doyle.

That quote came from one of four letters held by the State Library of New South Wales, and I'm now posting each of the four letters with a transcription and some comments.

The call numbers for the four letters are: RB/MSS004/1, RB/MSS004/2, RB/MSS004/3, RB/MSS004/4. In each case, I arranged last year for the SLNSW to digitize the letters. The first letter was the one containing the reference to A Study in Scarlet. 

This second letter is RB/MSS004/2. I believe this letter may be the earliest of the four letters (possibly prior to 1885), though it is almost impossible to date. The absence of references to a spouse or children, and the implication that the letter is being written after friends have visited to stay and drink suggests this may from written in early 1885 or even earlier.

Private
1 Bush Villas

Southsea

My dear Kate -

When your comforting presence and that of the bold brain wrencher and cerebrum annihilator was removed from me I sickened and took to my bed. On Tuesday I was very bad and we had to have a Doctor in who - much as I distrust and contemn Doctors as a rule - was certainly very kind to me. On Wednesday I was worse, and really in a bad way. On Thursday I was worser still and on Friday affairs reached a climax . Beyond a faint yodelling at intervals there was neither croak nor kick in me. This morning however I awoke comparatively fresh and have crawled down stairs and am amusing myself by writing to thee. I am as weak as a kitten, groggy on my legs and swimmy about the head - but still - however - I know I am round the corner.

Oh Kate, I could write thee a funeral sermon which would move thee much - I could attain fame as a writer of epitaphs, I could dwell on aught that is ghastly and morbid but to write in that happy sprightly manner which your own vitality and appearance and age demand is as impossible to me now as to smoke my pipe or eat my dinner. But still. Let me assure you before I go any further what a very great pleasure your visit was to me. When Bill proposed about Xmas time that you should all four come down I threw cold water on the scheme, knowing what a censorious little place this is, what a headquarters of gossip the hotel next door is, and how absolutely necessary it was that I, who had nothing to fall back upon should be careful what I did. As we managed it however nothing could have been better and we enjoyed ourselves without risking anything. I have only two regrets - viz that Bill was not with you and that my confounded seediness should have thrown a damper over things.

If I am capable of walking I shall be in London on Monday. If I only  get better as rapidly as I got ill 36 hours may work a great change in me. If I do come I will call on you between 2 and 4 and take your life (sounds rather bloodthirsty) if it wont be inconvenient to you if it will be the least inconveniencing wire and let me know. If I don't turn up you will know that I am too seedy to leave Portsmouth.

By the way Kate I want you to become an unofficial agent of ours. There is not the least reason why you should not take 50 pounds or 70 pounds a year out of Life Assurance you would get 15 per cent of all business you did. Meeting artists and men of that stamp as you do all you would need to say in your own taking way would be "Guess what I am now. I am a Life Assurance agent. Won't you give me a turn. It's the best office in England" - and for very gallantry they could hardly refuse. When you had half a dozen cases ready, I would run up and do the filling up of forms - so that after the initial step you would have nothing to do but pocket your commissions. What think ye of it?

I could write away for ever, Kate, but my hand is shakey, and all my strings seem to have come off the pulleys.

Goodbye, my love to Dan and Bill and, my dear Kate, to yourself from 

Your affectionate friend

Arthur Conan Doyle 

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And so to some general comments. I'm creating a set of annotations for each letter. Separately I have been tracing the life of Kate Bryson and the provenance of the letters, so let's set that aside for this letter.

This letter does not provide a great deal into events in Doyle's life. The letter is addressed to Kate, and Dan is again referenced, along with 'Bill' (believed to be William.K Burton).

The letter is written to Kate following a visit by four people: Kate, Dan and Bill, along with a fourth unidentified person. Following the visit, Doyle was exceedingly sick.

'much as I distrust and contemn Doctors as a rule': contemn is to treat with contempt. ACD himself being a doctor of course.

'I, who had nothing to fall back upon should be careful what I did': this passage suggests that this letter is written early in ACD's time at Southsea, as he 'had nothing to fall back on' and worried about his reputation. Later in his time at Southsea he'd build a reputation as a man of letters, and his practice was more established.

The 'hotel next door' was the Bush Hotel. It can be seen in this postcard depicting the intersection of Elm Grove and Kings Road, clearly marked as such, a four-story building on the right corner. Doyle's practice at Bush Villas can be seen, between the Bush Hotel and the church at the center of the postcard.

'I want you to become an unofficial agent of ours': This is an intriguing passage. First, it is another demonstration of Doyle doing all he can to supplement his income. In the first letter, it was via earning extra income as a surgeon for the army, and here it is by organizing life assurance policies. This section also emphasizes that Kate Bryson is involved in artistic circles in London, as he states Kate is 'Meeting artists and men of that stamp as you do...'.

'Assurance' in the UK is 'insurance' in the US and other countries. During this period, Doyle worked for the Gresham Life Assurance Society in his professional capacity as a doctor. The collected letters contained in 'Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters' includes multiple references to Doyle's work for Gresham - which would be performing a medical evaluation as part of the application process. But Doyle was more enterprising, and in one letter to his mother refers to the idea of traveling to Edinburgh with George Barnden (the Southsea agent for Gresham) to drum up business. 

In this case, Doyle is proposing the same to Kate Bryson - to identify individuals in her London circle who could be signed up for a life assurance policy, at which point Doyle would head to London to complete the process (with a royalty for Kate).

Dear Kate - letter one of four

In my last post I shared the recent article and talk I have on the earliest reference to 'A Study in Scarlet' by Conan Doyle. 

That quote came from one of four letters held by the State Library of New South Wales.

The call numbers for the four letters are: RB/MSS004/1, RB/MSS004/2, RB/MSS004/3, RB/MSS004/4. In each case, I arranged last year for the SLNSW to digitize the letters. 

The letter in which the 'Study in Scarlet' quite resides in catalogued as RB/MSS004/4. This particular letter is written in quite a large hand, and on government paper (evidenced by an embossed crest at the head of the first page). The paper is poor quality, and each of the two sheets has effectively fallen along the fold lines in to eight pieces. 

  

 

Station Hospital 

Portsea 

My dear Kate 

I have begun many letters to you and have progressed some distance with them, and then the .... incident has interrupted me and I have not gone on with the letter. The ?? is full of fragments of letters to you - this one however shall be finished. I have been stuck on here to look after troops which is a very good thing but probably won't last long. They have run short of army medics it appears so have to fall back upon civil practitioners. I still run the shop at Bush Villas, so that my hands are pretty full. It is very fun as I have many men under me and can say to one come and he goeth with as Holy writ remarks. The other night I was run in as a prisoner by some bould militia men who seemed to think I had an O'Donovan-Rossy sort of look about me. Their excuse was that I didn't know the counter sign. The screw is about 12 pounds a month so if it lasts it will be a capital thing but it is liable terminate any moment.

I should like so much to have a few hours at Acacia Cottages. Can you tell me which is the last down train from New Malden. I am anxious to hear more of what Dan is up to. I hope the period of the Bernards slavery is nearly at a close - yet he must not take a step until {he} knows something better awaits him. Of Bill I hear nothing. I do hope all is well with him. I write him occasionally epistles which I intend to be funny but which I have no doubt have convinced him that I am suffering from softening of the brain.

We have had a heavy blow in the shape of the death of our pet cat. She was a very high minded and independent cat, but jealousy was one of her failings and when she heard of my intended marriage she looked at me reproachfully, went across the road to the Marston Lodge cat and made arrangements as to the disposal of her property, and then came back and deliberately committed suicide by getting into the oven allowing herself to be shut in and suffocated. She was a cat of considerable attainments . She used sometimes during the night to assemble all the neighbours cats in my back garden and used to address them from the top of the wall with much vehemence. From the respect with which her remarks were always listened to I judge that she was considered the best orator in this quarter. Whether on those occasions she was ?? of her ..... or whether she merely discussed the passing events of the hour is more than I have been able to determine. It is my duty to say that she had faults. Her morals were loose and her language was free. I once heard her speak to a dog  who came into our passage in a manner which shocked one much. Still her tastes were refined. She was fond of botany and entymology. The first led her carefully to dig up everything which we planted in the garden. The second took her into strange places in pursuit of flies. I have no doubt that her spirit has gone to some Cat's paradise where innumerable corks hang from countless doorknobs, and where mice who have died in a state of sin scuttle about all day and afford fine sport to the ..... won't have as clean a sheet to show if our books are ever overhauled. Cats don't do shabby things. But there - I musn't start moralizing or I shall bore you. 

'A Study in Scarlet' - what an excellent name for a story depending upon a murder and the interest lying in the difficulty of unravelling the facts and who the murdered was. It struck me quite suddenly and I at once recognized it was a splendid name. I shall write it. 

Literature is slack. I am torpid. My brain won't work. I believe I have something of the turtle in me - or is it a turtle which lies listless for weeks. It is some sort of creature anyway, and with that creature I claim kinship. The truth is that I am hopelessly, .... infamously lazy. Laziness is next to Godliness would be my motto if I had to choose one and my crest the seven sleepers, with a tobacco pipe and a beer both as supporters.

I am so glad you have determined not to take that step. I am convinced that it would have been a fatal mistake.

I get married on or about the 6th of August. We correspond pretty regularly. I think she is a very good little girl and will make a jolly partner in life. I shall keep my married household in quite as Bohemian a style as my single one.

Give my love to Dan. Send me all the news when you write. Any word from Doyley Carte. I don't know when Belgravia will publish that - nor when they will pay me for it.

Adieu - dear Kate - 

Your Affect friend

A Conan Doyle 

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And so to some general comments. I'm creating a set of annotations for each letter. Separately I have been tracing the life of Kate Bryson and the provenance of the letters, so let's set that aside for this letter.

For now, some observations and questions not already addressed in the speech above.

- Doyle clearly enjoyed his extra employment at the Military Hospital, both for the responsibility and the extra cashflow. ACD describes the experience in 'Memories and Adventures' that provides some extra context, but he does not date that experience.

- Of the four letters, three are to Kate, and one is to Dan. In this letter to Kate, ACD enquires after Dan. 'Acacia Cottages' appears to be the name of where Dan and Kate live. 'New Malden' is/was a village in South-West London, with a station on the main line from London Waterloo.

- Dan's 'Bernards slavery' very likely relates to his employment, and ties to the provenance of the letter.

- 'Bill' is likely Willy K. Burton, Doyle's friend from Edinburgh who lived in London at the time. Doyle refers to Willy in other letters in the quartet of letters.

- I truly wish that Doyle named the cat. The obituary is so delightful.

- I have been asked when presenting whether the wording of the 'Study in Scarlet' text implies that Kate suggest the title to Doyle. I believe not. The sentence is the first of several stoccato passages on completely different topics - each appear to me jotted down as a separate thought - perhaps the letter was written over a shift or two at the hospital. I believe that Doyle devised the name, and that is reinforced by his statement 'It struck me quite suddenly and I at once recognized it was a splendid name'

- I think it's hilarious that he follows that statement 'I shall write it' by starting the next paragraph saying 'Literature is slack' and complaining about what may be writers block.

- 'Doyley Carte' was Richard D'Oyly Carte (1844-1901), a talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer, and hotelier. It appears from the quartet and some newspaper references that Kate may have been an aspiring stage actress.

- 'I don't know when Belgravia will publish that' helped date the letter - ACD was answering a question from Kate's letter. Doyle's only story published in Belgravia was 'The Great Keinplatz Experiment', which went to print in the July 1885 issue.