Board Thread:Support Requests - Community Management/@comment-78.150.2.167-20150806152513

I have read your account of the origins of Dr John Watson who chronicled the stories of Sherlock Holmes. You might be interested to know that Dr John Watson is based on an actual person called Dr James Watson who practiced in Portsmouth and Southsea at the same time as Dr Arthur Conan Doyle between the years 1883/4 and 1891/2 when Conan Doyle gave up medicine for other interests. Dr James Watson was my great grandfather and I have researched and recorded his life pretty thoroughly. He and Doyle were friends and near neighbours in Southsea. He had been working as the physician and surgeon to the British Consulate in Newchwang, now called Yingkou, in Southern Manchuria during the years 1865 to 1883. In a search for what he thought to be a suitable name Doyle decided Dr Watson was a good one but changed his first name from James to John to protect his friend from any embarrassment as he was still in practice. Dr James was also Senior Consultant Physician at the Royal Portsmouth Hospital. I have the research with many supporting references including confirmation in print by Doyle himself as well as his daughter. It is said that Doyle fashioned Watson's personality on his own which may well be true but anecdotal evidence in the family suggests many of the good doctor's traits were very similar to those of Dr James also. So, there are two Dr Watsons, the fictional and the real man and I wonder if you would be interested in posting a shortened version of my notes about 'The Real Doctor Watson' in your pages. Do let me know if this is of any interest to you and, if so, what you would like me to do next. I look forward to hearing from you Jeremy Watson 01258 821484 jcwatson@talktalk.net 