Dr. Watson

Dr. John H. Watson is a fictional character, the sidekick of Sherlock Holmes, the fictional 19th century detective created by Arthur Conan Doyle. Various sources give Watson's birth date as August 7, 1852 and his full name as Dr. John Hamish Watson.

In the story, A Study in Scarlet (published in 1887), Watson, as the narrator, describes meeting Holmes, their subsequent sharing of rooms at 221B Baker Street, his attempts to discover the profession of his taciturn companion, Holmes's eventual taking of Watson into his confidence, and the events surrounding their first case together. Watson describes Holmes and his methods in detail, but to Holmes's taste, in too romantic and sentimental a manner.

Watson is a medical man of some experience. He had served in the military in Afghanistan, having been discharged following an injury received in the line of duty.

Watson gives two separate locations for the Jezail bullet wound he received whilst serving in the army. In A Study in Scarlet he states "I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery". However in The Sign of Four, Watson informs us "... [I] sat nursing my wounded leg. I had had a Jezail bullet through it some time before, and though it did not prevent me from walking it ached wearily at every change of the weather". The Sign of the Four, Watson met 1929, English crime writer and critic Ronald Knox (1888 - 1957) categorically stated as one of his rules for fledgling writers of detective fiction -

the stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal from the reader any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader".

Many of the great fictional detectives have their Watson: Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, for example, is accompanied by Captain Arthur Hastings.

In a number of film adaptations, in particular those featuring the comic skills of the actor Nigel Bruce, the character of Watson becomes more of a caricature. Far from being the able assistant as presented by Doyle, Watson is portrayed as an incompetent fool. Modern treatments have returned the roots of Conan Doyle stories and have portrayed a more sympathetic and competent Watson. The most famous example of this restored image of Watson is the depiction played by David Burke in the Sherlock Holmes television series in the 1980s that starred Jeremy Brett in the title role. Another well-liked depiction was by actor André Morell in the 1959 film version of The Hound of the Baskervilles.

"[Holmes] was a man of habits... and I had become one of them... a comrade... upon whose nerve he could place some reliance... a whetstone for his mind. I stimulated him... If I irritated him by a certain methodical slowness in my mentality, that irritation served only to make his own flame-like intuitions and impressions flash up the more vividly and swiftly. Such was my humble role in our alliance."

Today, the importance of Dr. Watson in detective fiction is so strong that it is customary to refer to any assistant of a fictional detective as their "Watson".