Minor Sherlock Holmes characters

This article features minor characters from the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and from non-canonical derived works.

Inspector Baynes

Inspector Baynes of the Surrey force appears in the two-part story "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge", subtitled (i) "The Singular Experience of Mr John Scott Eccles", and (ii) "The Tiger of San Pedro". He is the only uniformed policeman in the books to have ever matched Sherlock Holmes in his investigative skills. In this story, the reader finds that despite working along different lines, they both arrive at the correct conclusion and solve the case at the same time. In fact, Baynes had misled even Holmes as he used a method similar to one that Holmes often used when he arrested the wrong man and provided inaccurate information to the press in order to lull the true criminal into a false sense of security. Holmes congratulated this inspector and believed that he would go far.

In Japanese puppetry Sherlock Holmes, Baynes is a pupil of Beeton School as well as Holmes and has a strong sense of rivalry against him. Baynes speaks in a precocious manner and provokes Holmes to find the truth of the disappearance of two pupils, Garcia and Henderson. After that, he provokes Holmes again by posting a message using the stick figures of dancing men in the school. Yōsuke Asari voices him.

Billy

Billy is Holmes's young page, appearing in the stories The Valley of Fear, "The Problem of Thor Bridge" and "The Mazarin Stone". In the latter he plays a significant role in helping to arrest the lead villain. He is a more significant character in all three of Doyle's plays featuring Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes; A Drama in Four Acts, The Stonor Case and The Crown Diamond, and in the spoof The Painful Predicament of Sherlock Holmes written by William Gillette. In 1903 Charlie Chaplin began his career by playing Billy on stage^[1][2] in both the four-act play and Gillette's spoof. Billy has appeared in the films Sherlock Holmes (1922), Sherlock Holmes (1932) and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939). In the episode of the TV series Sherlock entitled "The Abominable Bride", Billy makes an appearance played by Adam Greaves-Neal, who previously played an original character named Archie in "The Sign of Three" (though presumably Archie drew some inspiration from Billy).

Inspector Bradstreet

Inspector Bradstreet is a detective who appears in three short stories: "The Man with the Twisted Lip", "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" and "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb".

Doyle described him as "a tall, stout official... in a peaked cap and frogged jacket". Sidney Paget's illustrations for the Strand Magazine depict him with a full beard. Beyond this little is revealed about him in the canon.

Bradstreet originally served in Scotland Yard's E Division which associates him with the Bow Street Runners, a forerunner of Scotland Yard. He claims to have been in the force since 1862 ("The Man with the Twisted Lip") but in June 1889 Dr Watson writes he is in B Division to oversee "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle". According to Sherlockian author Jack Tracy, B Division was:

one of the twenty-two administrative divisions of the Metropolitan Police Force. Its 5.17 square miles include parts of south Kensington and the south-western section of West-minister [sic?]...^[3]

In "The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb", he accompanied Holmes to Eyford, a village in Berkshire. According to Jack Tracy's The Encyclopaedia Sherlockiana, he was "assigned most likely to the central headquarters staff."

Bradstreet is not a martinet; in "The Man with the Twisted Lip" he could have prosecuted the false beggar, but chose to overlook this action to spare Neville St Clair the trauma of shaming his wife and children.

Bradstreet appears four times in Granada Television's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: "The Blue Carbuncle", "The Man with the Twisted Lip", "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" (substituting for Inspector Lestrade, as Colin Jeavons was unavailable), and a cameo appearance in "The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone". Initially he was played by Brian Miller as a blustering, pompous plodder, then later as much more competent by Denis Lill.

He is also featured in M. J. Trow's series The Adventures of Inspector Lestrade.

Inspector Gregson

Inspector Tobias Gregson, a Scotland Yard inspector, was first introduced in A Study in Scarlet (1887), and he subsequently appears in "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter" (1893), "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge" (1908) and "The Adventure of the Red Circle" (1911). Holmes declares him to be "the smartest of the Scotland Yarders," but given Holmes' opinion of the Scotland Yard detectives, this is not sweeping praise. In one of the stories Watson specifically mentions the callous and cool way in which Gregson behaved.

Gregson first appears in A Study in Scarlet and is a polar opposite of another Yarder Doyle created, Inspector Lestrade. Lestrade and Gregson are such visual opposites, it indicates the barrier Doyle drew between them to emphasise their professional animosity. Gregson is tall, "tow-headed" (fair-haired) in contrast to the shorter Lestrade's dark "ferretlike" (narrow) features and has "fat, square hands".

Of all the Yarders, Gregson comes the closest to meeting Sherlock Holmes on intellectual grounds, while acknowledging Holmes's abilities. He even admits to Holmes that he always feels more confident when he has Holmes's aid in a case. Regrettably, he is bound within the confines of the law he serves, and the delay in getting his assistance turns to tragedy in "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter". He also has some regrettable human flaws. During A Study in Scarlet he publicly laughs at Lestrade's incorrect assumptions, even though he is also on the wrong trail.

Unlike Lestrade, Gregson overlooks the little grey areas of the law, and in "The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter" overlooks Holmes's breaking of a window in order to enter a premises. The life of Mycroft Holmes's fellow lodger is saved by this minor criminal act.

Gregson last appears in Doyle's "The Adventure of the Red Circle" in events that happen in 1902 but are not published by Dr Watson until 1911. In this story, Watson observes that:

Our official detectives may blunder in the matter of intelligence, but never in that of courage. Gregson climbed the stair to arrest this desperate murderer with the same absolutely quiet and businesslike bearing with which he would have ascended the official staircase of Scotland Yard. The Pinkerton man had tried to push past him, but Gregson had firmly elbowed him back. London dangers were the privilege of the London force.

In the 1945 film The Woman in Green, Gregson was played by Matthew Boulton.

A character named Captain Gregson of the NYPD appears in the TV adaptation Elementary, portrayed by Aidan Quinn. Originally he was to be called Tobias Gregson, after the character in the stories, but his name was changed to Thomas Gregson.^[4]

Inspector Hopkins

Inspector Stanley Hopkins is a Scotland Yard detective and a student of Holmes's deductive methods, who attempts to apply them in his own investigations. Holmes, however, is very critical of Hopkins's ability to apply them well, Hopkins sometimes making such mistakes as arresting a man whose notebook was found at a crime scene despite it being physically impossible for the man in question to have killed the victim in the manner that he was discovered; after the real culprit was captured, he learns to be more open-minded in future cases. Hopkins refers several cases to Holmes, all within the South-East areas of England and London, including:

• "The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez", set in 1894 in Chatham, Kent, and
• "The Adventure of Black Peter", in Weald set in 1895, and
• "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange", in 1897 in Chislehurst.

In the 1946 film Dressed to Kill, Hopkins was portrayed by Carl Harbord.

In the first episode of Season Two of Elementary, a "DCI Hopkins" calls Holmes to London from New York.

A female Inspector named Stella Hopkins appears in the episode of Sherlock entitled "The Six Thatchers". While uncertain, it can be presumed that the character drew inspiration from Inspector Hopkins.

Mrs. Hudson

Mrs. Hudson is the landlady of the house 221B Baker Street, in which Holmes lives.

Mrs. Hudson is a woman who wants the home to be clean and tidy, and often fights with Holmes for this. Watson describes her as a very good cook; in "The Naval Treaty," Holmes says "Her cuisine is a little limited, but she has as good an idea of breakfast as a Scotchwoman,"^[5] which some readers have taken to mean that she is Scottish, and others that she cannot possibly be. Other than one mention of her "stately tread", she is given no physical description or first name, although some commentators have identified her with the "Martha" in "His Last Bow".^[6][7]

Watson described the relationship between Holmes and Hudson in the opening of "The Adventure of the Dying Detective":

Mrs. Hudson, the landlady of Sherlock Holmes, was a long-suffering woman. Not only was her first-floor flat invaded at all hours by throngs of singular and often undesirable characters but her remarkable lodger showed an eccentricity and irregularity in his life which must have sorely tried her patience. His incredible untidiness, his addiction to music at strange hours, his occasional revolver practice within doors, his weird and often malodorous scientific experiments, and the atmosphere of violence and danger which hung around him made him the very worst tenant in London. On the other hand, his payments were princely. I have no doubt that the house might have been purchased at the price which Holmes paid for his rooms during the years that I was with him.

The landlady stood in the deepest awe of him and never dared to interfere with him, however outrageous his proceedings might seem. She was fond of him, too, for he had a remarkable gentleness and courtesy in his dealings with women.^[8]

At one point in "A Scandal in Bohemia" Holmes calls the landlady "Mrs. Turner", rather than Mrs. Hudson, which has caused much speculation among Holmes fans.^[9]

In film and television adaptations of the stories, Mrs. Hudson is usually portrayed as an older woman; on rare occasions she is presented as a young woman.

In the BBC series Sherlock, she is played by actress and TV presenter Una Stubbs. She offers Holmes a lower rent because he helped her out by ensuring the conviction and execution of her husband in Florida after he murdered two people. In "A Scandal in Belgravia" when agents torture Mrs. Hudson trying to find a mobile phone, Sherlock repeatedly throws the agent responsible out of an upper-level window, and later states that "England would fall" if Mrs. Hudson left Baker Street. In "His Last Vow" her name is revealed to be Martha Louise Hudson (née Sissons), a semi-reformed alcoholic and former exotic dancer. Her "pressure point", according to Charles Augustus Magnusson's information on her, is marijuana.

Mrs. Clara (née Clarisa) Hudson is a much more developed character in Laurie R. King's series of novels focusing on the detective scholar Mary Russell. In this alternative extension of the Holmes mythology, the retired Holmes marries his much younger apprentice and partner. Russell and Holmes meet after the traumatic death of her family in California when she moves to the farm adjoining Holmes' Sussex home. Mrs. Hudson takes the young and emotionally fragile Russell under her wing, and Russell comes to think of her as a friend, a second mother, and a rock in the whirl of danger that always surrounds Holmes. The novel The Murder of Mary Russell tells Mrs. Hudson's biography over several generations, her meeting and bond with Holmes, and her ties to Russell. The novel appeared after the development of Mrs. Hudson's character in the BBC series Sherlock. As in that rendition of the character, Mrs. Hudson has a criminal past and initially met Holmes in unsavory circumstances, in this case when she murdered her father to save Holmes' life. Holmes buys the Baker St. house for Hudson and establishes her as his landlady. In typical Holmesian logic, this relieves him of the tedium of homeownership and explains both her forbearance with her tenant and his uncharacteristic affection for her. A skilled actress and con artist, she is comfortable with the criminals who inhabit his world and enjoys playing occasional roles in investigations in which an eminently respectable older woman might be needed. In this series, she is slightly older than Holmes (although Russell and Watson thinks she is significantly older), born in Scotland, raised in Australia, and an immigrant to England. She acted as a mother surrogate to Billy Mudd, Holmes' first 'Irregular', has one sister who lived to adulthood, and one illegitimate child of her own. Holmes states explicitly that the condition of her remaining in England and their relationship is that Hudson's life prior to the murder is never to be mentioned, that they must never have a sexual or romantic relationship, and that she know that her history as a criminal and murderer will always be present in his mind whenever they interact. To Holmes, Hudson represents a way of solving the ethical problem of what to do with someone who murders to prevent harm, but who may return to criminal activity. His manipulation of Hudson removes Hudson and Mudd from lives as criminals, keeps Hudson's infant from the workhouse, and provides Holmes with a housekeeper and intelligent ally.

A transgender Ms. Hudson appears in the 19th episode of the US series Elementary as an expert in Ancient Greek who essentially makes a living as a kept woman and muse for various wealthy men; Holmes allows her to stay in the apartment after a break-up, and she subsequently agrees to clean for them once a week as a source of income and to prevent Holmes from having to do it himself.

In Sherlock Holmes' War of the Worlds it is suggested that Holmes and Mrs. Hudson had a long-lasting love relationship, obvious to all but the naive Watson.

In the TMS anime series Sherlock Hound directed by Hayao Miyazaki, Mrs. Hudson is depicted as a younger woman, and a widow of a pilot named Jim. In this incarnation, her full name is revealed to be Marie Hudson, and fitting with the theme of the characters being canines, she resembles a Golden Retriever. She normally stays behind at 221B Baker Street, but accompanies Hound and Watson on a few cases, usually any that involve something related to flight, and is shown to be a very skilled driver, pilot, and marksman. She is once kidnapped by Professor Moriarty and his henchmen as a part of a scheme to defeat Hound, though Moriarty vows to never involve her in his schemes after she shows him kindness during the time she's kept as a hostage. Additionally, it's shown that most of the main male cast of the series (namely Hound and especially Watson) are attracted to her.

In the NHK puppetry Sherlock Holmes, Mrs. Hudson (voiced by Keiko Horiuchi) is a jolly housemother of Baker House, one of the houses of Beeton School. She loves singing and baking biscuits and calls Holmes by his first name Sherlock. She is particularly kind to him and Watson for Holmes saves her when she is in a predicament in the first episode "The First Adventure" based on "A Study in Scarlet". In the episode 11 based on "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", she finds a big snake in the school.^[10]

Mrs Hudson is the detective in the novels Mrs Hudson and the Spirits' Curse (2002), Mrs Hudson and the Malabar Rose (2005) and Mrs Hudson and the Lazarus Testament (2015), by Martin Davies, and in The House at Baker Street (2016) and The Women of Baker Street (2017), by Michelle Birkby.

Shinwell Johnson

Shinwell "Porky" Johnson is a former criminal who acts as informant and occasional muscle for Sherlock Holmes (Although Watson notes that he is only useful in cases that by their nature will not go to court as he would compromise his connection to Holmes and thus render himself useless as a source if he ever had to testify as part of a case). He appears in "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client" where he protects Kitty from Baron Grüner's henchmen and provides Holmes with insight into how he might go about infiltrating Grüner's house to acquire a certain book. He is referred to in the radio adaptations of Sherlock Holmes, specifically in The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Ferrers Documents where he appears to carry on with intimidation business.

The fifth season of the TV show Elementary introduced an updated version of the character (played by Nelsan Ellis) as both a former patient of Watson's and ex-convict now attempting to go straight. He became part of a complex sting operation to infiltrate and dismantle his old gang, but after Sherlock and Joan decided to trust him even after learning that he killed one of his old associates in the gang, he was killed before he could complete his assignment.

Athelney Jones

Inspector Athelney Jones is a Scotland Yard detective who appears in The Sign of the Four. He arrests the entire household of Bartholomew Sholto, including his brother and servants, on suspicion of his murder, but is forced to release all but one of them, much to his own embarrassment.

An Inspector Peter Jones appears in "The Red-Headed League"; it is unknown if he is related to Athelney. He does however refer specifically to events in The Sign of the Four, and Watson says that he speaks in a "consequential way", suggesting a connection. Holmes refers to Jones as "an imbecile" but also acknowledges him as being "tenacious as a lobster."

Mary Morstan (later Watson)

Mary Morstan is the wife of Dr. Watson. She is first introduced in The Sign of the Four, where she and Watson tentatively become attracted to each other, but only when the case is resolved is he able to propose to her. She is described as blonde with pale skin. At the time she hires Holmes she had been making a living as a governess. Although at the end of the story the main treasure is lost, she has received six pearls from a chaplet of the Agra Treasure.

Her father, Captain Arthur Morstan, was a senior captain of an Indian regiment and later stationed near the Andaman Islands. He disappeared in 1878 under mysterious circumstances that would later be proven to be related to the mystery, The Sign of the Four. Her mother died soon after her birth and she had no other relatives in England, although she was educated there (in accordance with the received wisdom of the time about children in the colony of India) until the age of seventeen. Shortly afterwards her father disappeared and she found work as a governess. Watson and Mary marry in 1889.

Mary Morstan is mentioned in passing in "The Adventure of the Crooked Man" and "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", but by the time of "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder" (after Holmes's return) Mary Morstan has died and Watson has returned to his former lodgings in Baker Street. Her cause of death is never mentioned.

Langdale Pike

Langdale Pike is a celebrated gossipmonger whose columns are published in numerous magazines and newspapers (referred to as the "garbage papers" by Watson). He's introduced in "The Adventure of the Three Gables" in which he helps Holmes learn the name of the woman who led Douglas Maberley to his demise, although he does not actually appear in the story itself and is only referred to by Watson who describes Pike as "strange" and "languid" and states that all of Pike's waking hours are spent "in the bow window of a St. James's Street club". His character has however been expanded on or fleshed out elsewhere. In William S. Baring-Gould's biography of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street, it is claimed that Pike is a college acquaintance of Holmes who encourages a young Holmes to try his hand at acting. Here his real name is given as 'Lord Peter'. In Peter Ling's radio play for the BBC Radio series, Pike's real name is said to be Clarence Gable. Here he is also an old school-friend of Holmes's and is nervous of strangers and reluctant to leave his club for this reason.^[11] In the Granada television adaptation starring Jeremy Brett as Holmes meanwhile, Pike (played by Peter Wyngarde) is also apparently an old university friend of Holmes's. Here he claims to be the benevolent counterpart of Charles Augustus Milverton (the eponymous blackmailer of The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton), who suppresses more information than he exposes. Though Watson is rather scathing about Pike, Holmes is more sympathetic towards him, suggesting that Pike is isolated, much like Holmes himself. In the American television series Elementary, Pike appears in the first episode of the second season as one of Holmes' sources in London; details are not seen as Pike moves quickly when delivering a package to Watson.^[12]

"Langdale" is used as a British Intelligence codename in the first episode of the fourth series of Sherlock, along with "Porlock," the name of another Holmes informer in the original stories.

In the NHK puppetry Sherlock Holmes, Pike is a pupil of Beeton School and assists Holmes in his investigation. He also works as informant and is fast at his job but tight with money. Besides he sells photographs of girls to male pupils. Tomokazu Seki voices him.

Toby

Toby is a dog who is used by Sherlock Holmes. He is first introduced in The Sign of the Four and is described by Watson as an "ugly long haired, lop-eared creature, half spaniel and half lurcher, brown and white in colour, with a very clumsy waddling gait." Though used by Holmes, the dog belongs to Mr Sherman who keeps a menagerie of creatures at No. 3 Pinchin Lane in Lambeth. Toby lives at No. 7 within his house. Holmes states he would "rather have Toby's help than that of the whole detective force in London" and requests the dog by name.

Toby also featured in the novel Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula; or, The Adventures of the Sanguinary Count by Loren D. Estleman, when Watson and Holmes called on Toby to track Count Dracula after finding him in a meat-packing district – Dracula's carriage having rolled through a distinctive piece of rubbish – allowing the two to track Dracula to Watson's house in time to learn that he has abducted Mary Watson.

In the Holmes-esque The Great Mouse Detective, Toby is a Basset Hound and a permanent resident of 221b Baker Street. He is frequently used by Basil, the eponymous protagonist, as a means of transport and to pick up trails.

In the NHK puppetry Sherlock Holmes, Toby is kept by Sherman in a shed in Beeton School and assists Holmes in his investigation. In the series, Sherman is a female pupil who loves animals and communicates with them, unlike Mr Sherman in "The Sign of the Four". Though being a pupil of Baker House, she doesn't live in the house but in the shed with animals.

A dog also appears in the Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes films, but the similarity stops at it being a dog and living with Sherlock. Its name is Gladstone, it's clearly an English bulldog and technically belongs to Watson. Sherlock doesn't use it as a hound, but as a subject for his experiments, especially those involving narcotics of some kind. Hence the running gag in the films "He's killed the dog again!" In these respects it bears a far stronger resemblance to the dog in A Study in Scarlet upon which Holmes tests out the murderer's poison pills (and in so doing euthanises the hound.)

In the BBC series Sherlock, in the first episode of the fourth season titled The Six Thatchers, Sherlock Holmes requires the services of a bloodhound named Toby.

Wiggins

Wiggins is a street urchin in London and head of the Baker Street Irregulars. He has no first name in the stories. His first appearance is in A Study in Scarlet (1886). The film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, directed by Billy Wilder, features a character called Wiggins (played by Graham Armitage) who is a footman at the Diogenes Club. He delivers a note to Mycroft Holmes (played by Christopher Lee) and receives instructions concerning various items. The character, credited as "Bill Wiggins", also appears in the series three finale of Sherlock portrayed by Tom Brooke as a drug user who actually demonstrates the beginning of Sherlock's deductive skills, and later appoints himself a "pupil" of Sherlock's.

Non-canonical

Some fictional characters associated with Sherlock Holmes are not part of the Conan Doyle canon and were created by other writers.

See also

• List of detectives, constables, and agents in Sherlock Holmes

References