Hiya I'm Bruce Fummey. Did you know that Sherlock Holmes was Scottish and I mean born and bred,
lived and died in Scotland, Scottish. If you want to know how I deduced that, then this is the video
for you. Also if you're generally interested in the people, places and events in Scottish history, then
hit the subscribe button at the bottom right hand side of the screen at any time during this video,
also buy me a coffee, become a member or get other information in the description
below. In the meantime let me outline the evidence by means of a story.
Now you might already know that Sherlock Holmes was invented by Arthur Conan Doyle,
you may know that the pub painted black in the corner between Picardy Place and Yorkshire
Place behind me is called the Conan Doyle, you may know that when there's no roadworks here there's
a statue of Sherlock Holmes on that island in the road behind me, you might even be aware
that Arthur Conan Doyle lived here at number 11 Picardy Place, Edinburgh and from these
things you might deduce that when I say Sherlock Holmes is Scottish, that I mean
the author of Sherlock Holmes is Scottish. You would however be entirely wrong my dear Watson.
I can look down on Picardy Place from Calton Hill here, you might even just be able to catch
the Conan Doyle pub, but it's not the birthplace of Arthur Conan Doyle that makes Sherlock Holmes
Scottish. Doyle was of Irish parentage, born in Scotland and educated at a Catholic school in
England, so you see he could have played for three out of the six nations rugby teams,
four if you count that fortnight he spent in Paris, and of course Wales is
a principality rather than a country. What I'm trying to say is he didn't like Italians okay,
but from his accent you would have made the elementary deduction that he was Scottish.
Let's imagine you were a bright Scottish lad who'd been given the privilege of a private education in
a Jesuit school down south. They'd hoped that you'd become a Priest, but whilst you're a caring sort,
you were more interested in science. What would you do? That's right, you'd go to study Medicine
wouldn't you? But where? Of course at Edinburgh University, it was the best in the land. Some years
earlier it had produced James Young Simpson. Now he was the guy who discovered chloroform as an anaesthetic,
in fact I'll leave a link to my video about him at the end, it'll knock you out! Just watch it. After he
graduated in 1881, Doyle spent 10 years in various jobs; working a whaling ship traveling in Europe,
studying in Vienna, doing a bit of writing, you know the kind of work a day Victorian existence.
Eventually he decided to settle down in the south of England, he's still Scottish remember! Well
Anglo-Irish-Scots at the very least. So this was pre-NHS, he didn't have money to buy into
a medical practice, so he set up on his own, but with no patients things didn't go well,
so what you're going to do now? You're in a bit of a fix aren't you? How are you going to earn a living?
You could write short stories, but what would catch the zeitgeist
of the nation? If you think people are frustrated with policing today, imagine
Victorian Britain when you could be convicted on the say so of corrupt authorities looking to pin
some heinous crime on you, and there's no forensic evidence to prove them wrong ...
or you right. Maybe it was you.
Did you leave the toilet seat up? Doyle thought back to one of his lecturers at
Edinburgh University. He knew this impressive surgeon well. He'd operated as a junior clerk
for a year whilst at university. Doyle remembered one time when a patient came into
surgery to be greeted with the question, 'Sir, did you enjoy your walk in the links this morning?'
The patient was stunned and he asked how the surgeon knew this morning's perambulations,
to which the doctor pointed to his shoes and commented that nowhere else in the
town had that colour of clay, so he must have approached the surgery in that direction. Aaaah
The surgeon's name was Joseph Bell, he lived here at 2 Melville Crescent, not far from
James Young Simpson, whose video you're gonna watch next. It's now the Japanese Consulate,
and a plaque's been erected by the Japan Sherlock Holmes Club.
Bell believed in the methodical application of observation, deduction, then diagnosis and
he trained Doyle and the other students to follow this system, but as well as being a doctor and a
lecturer, Bell had an evening job too. You see a colleague and acquaintance who did post mortems
for the police, recognised his skills and methods, and he would consult Bell asking him to look at
a corpse and comment on the cause of death and stuff like that. Now Bell used his deep observation,
holistic methodology and deductive approach and here in the Georgian New Town of Victorian
Edinburgh, was the very beginnings of modern forensic pathology. Not only would Bell be
the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes, we can also consider him the inspiration for CSI New York,
CSI Miami, and even Quincy. In CSI Alabama, it was a black guy. CSI Fife, everyone's guilty.
You see that poking fun at prejudice then immediately demonstrating prejudice myself,
that's irony. You can detect it by an orangey colour on a flame test!
So Bell is introduced to crimework by his friend and colleague called Littlejohn,
but it was Bell who was the star behind Littlejohn's mask. There was one particular
case, and it was in 1878, where both of them were called to the home of a wealthy French linguist.
The linguist's wife was catatonic, dying from what he claimed was poisoning after a gas leak.
Now gas leaks wouldn't have been uncommon in Victorian Britain, but something didn't
quite sit right with Bell. Visual observation verified that the victim had vomited vituperously
sorry, it just spilled out. Bell took the vomit stained pillow for samples. He examined the lungs,
which had none of the expected smell of gas. He tested the blood, analysed the pillow stains,
and had gas experts examine the pipework, and he came to the conclusion that Mrs Chantrel had died
from an overdose of morphine. Now police started to ask questions and witnesses came forward
to reveal arguments between husband and wife, accusations thrown, abuse hurled and threats made.
He had left that toilet seat up! Now Bell didn't seek the limelight, he was happy
in the background as Littlejohn took the centre stage, but as Chantrel walked to the gallows
a convicted murderer, he admitted that Littlejohn and Bell had got him right enough. Now
Joseph Bell's name was in the public domain, it was nine years after the execution of Chantrel
that Joseph Bell's alter ego was revealed to an even wider world. In March 1886, Arthur Conan
Doyle created Sherlock Holmes and a year later, his first story, 'A Study in Scarlet' was published.
In truth, Arthur Conan Doyle didn't create Sherlock Holmes, he copied him fully formed from his old
university lecturer, inventor of forensic science, and master of deductive reasoning, Joseph Bell.
He wrote a letter of thanks to him years later to that effect.
So Sherlock Holmes was public, whilst Joseph Bell was trying to remain private. A year later
something happened, and as the fictional Sherlock Holmes was gaining celebrity, the real Sherlock
Holmes was brought in to work on the most infamous case of his time that we still talk about today.
Whilst Conan Doyle was in the South of England introducing the
fictional Sherlock Holmes to the public, Scotland Yard had herded the real one,
and they asked him to consult on a case that you already know about. I bet you didn't know though
that the real Sherlock Holmes was asked to investigate the case of Jack the Ripper.
London Police sent the case files north, and Bell and Littlejohn decided that they would both work
separately on the file sent up to Scotland from Scotland Yard. You know that that got its name because
it's where Scottish Royalty stayed when they were visiting London a way back in the day.
Anyway, they worked on the case separately and then brought together their findings
and both came up with the same suspect. The report was sent down to London.
Who did they identify as Jack the Ripper?
Well the report was kept for years before it disappeared. Did that create suspense?
Was it kept a secret because one of the key suspects identified, a respectable middle class
solicitor had jumped in the Thames with stones weighing them down in his pockets
after which the murders stopped? I suppose we'll never know. So whenever you watch an
episode of Sherlock Holmes or if it's more your bag, CSI, remember they all started with Scotsman
from Edinburgh. After retiring to a country estate that's now part of Penicuik, Joseph Bell himself
died in 1911 at the age of 74. He's buried here in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh, it's a short walk
from his home in the New Town and indeed the home of James Young Simpson, whose video comes up next.
Tha mi an dochas bum bith lath math leibh. Tiorridh an drasda.
you