Torquay’s Other History: Arthur Conan Doyle & the Great War

By Kevin Dixon, on Monday, August 8, 2011

© Copyright Derek Harper and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Torquay War Memorial: Arthur Conan Doyle delivered a lecture entitled The Great Battles of the War at the Pavilion

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a Scottish physician and writer. He will always be best known for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes.

When World War One broke out in 1914 Conan Doyle tried to enlist in the military stating:

I am 55 but I am very strong and hardy, and can make my voice audible at great distances, which is useful at drill.

Though he was unsuccessful, his talents were used on the home front. Along with HG Wells, GK Chesterton, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling and other leading British writers, he was recruited by Charles Masterman MP, the head of the War Propaganda Bureau. The aim was to use these literary greats to promote the British war effort through their writing.

In 30th September 1914, Conan Doyle published a recruiting pamphlet for the armed forces entitled To Arms!

During the War he began work on The British Campaign in France and Flanders, an extremely detailed history of the conflict. He gathered material for the book from many sources, though it has been criticised as being biased and inaccurate.

The British Campaign in France and Flanders was initially published in six volumes, though it didn’t sell well. The public wanted to hear about the day’s battles rather than read a history of the early months of the war. After 1918, the public had understandably lost interest. Conan Doyle said the book was, “an undeserved literary disappointment”.

In March 1915, Conan Doyle stayed at The Grand Hotel for two weeks. On March 27, he delivered a lecture entitled The Great Battles of the War at the Pavilion where he paid “high tribute” to the Devonshire Regiment and urged the audience to contribute to the war effort: