Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was English, of Irish Catholic descent, and his mother, Mary, was Irish Catholic. In 1864 the family scattered because of Charles’s growing alcoholism, and the children were temporarily housed across Edinburgh. The family came together again in 1867 and lived in squalid tenement flats. Doyle’s father died in 1893 after many years of psychiatric illness. After attending Jesuit schools, Doyle went on to study medicine. After graduation, he became a ship’s surgeon and shipped to the West African coast, after which he studied ophthalmology in Vienna. From the time of his early study of medicine to the final stages of his career, Doyle wrote prolifically.
