Did you ever wonder… Suppose Author Conan Doyle had not chosen Dr. Watson as the partner for Sherlock Holmes? Doyle could have chosen someone else to partner with his Great Detective. It did not have to be Watson. So, if not Watson, then who else might fit the needs of Holmes as the perfect partner?
As Doyle was creating the character of Sherlock Holmes and was choosing a partner for his Great Detective, he knew he needed to pick someone who could showcase Holmes’s unique talents to the world, but also a person who brought value to the relationship—someone who would be an important and intrinsic part of the Holmes team. And Holmes and Watson are a team, make no mistake about that! However, it was not all that easy for Holmes to find the right person to share rooms with, and get along with—or perhaps more importantly, someone who could get along with him!
Holmes could be a difficult person to be around. He could be moody, arrogant, and troublesome. He kept odd hours. He test fired weapons indoors. He was also brilliant, but in a rather annoying way that most regular people would not accept or ever put up with for very long. Holmes was unique. Thus any person Holmes would share rooms with, must be unique as well.
Sherlock Holmes also did not have friends, at least not in the way we commonly think of friends. His friends were more likely associates, a network of people used in his work to close cases; some members of the official police; criminals (reformed, such as Shinwell “Porky” Johnson, and others not reformed); the Baker Street Irregulars, even Toby the dog was a part of his “team” at times.
With all that known, when Holmes was looking to share the rooms at 221B Baker Street with another person, he knew it must be someone who would be able to tolerate him and his odd manners—no easy feat—and more so, to be of value to him in his important work. The list would seem to be rather short, but there are some likely candidates.
Putting Watson aside for the moment, Holmes (through Doyle) could have chosen someone from another profession to be his partner. With that possibility in mind, is there someone other than Watson, or a medical doctor, who might have brought more to the table for Holmes?
There are other candidates, of course, other than good old Watson. Men of other important professions had much to offer. Perhaps a Scotland Yard Inspector? Or some young and talented constable? Perhaps a knowledgeable lawyer? A local politician? Or even a newspaper reporter? Men from each of these professions, or others, would bring experiences and contacts that would prove an important contribution to Holmes and his work.
Let’s take a look at an official detective. Lestrade certainly would not be the man here, but another one of them might fit in well and have much to contribute to Holmes. A Scotland Yard Inspector could certainly grease the skids for Holmes with The Yard, and offer Holmes unique inside access to crime scenes, records, suspects and all that! Perhaps? Or perhaps not, since early on in his career the official police did not understand nor respect Holmes and his methods, nor appreciate what he was doing in his new consulting detective service. The feeling was mutual. Holmes looked upon the official police, including vaulted Scotland Yard Inspectors as plodding, unimaginative, incompetent and generally useless in solving crimes. The official police more often than not ignored or mucked-up key evidence at a crime scene—and sometimes even arrested the wrong man! No, there was no way that Holmes could ever share rooms with a member of the official police. He did not respect them—and they did not respect him—certainly not in the early days of his career.
Now a lawyer, or even a local politician might offer some good advice with the law or help in cutting red tape, and both would certainly have valued connections. However, Holmes did not need the advice of any lawyer to tell him why he could not take a certain action in his work. Nor did he need to listen to any self-serving politician. He did not trust or respect such men. Besides, he had Mycroft to turn to for any serious legal needs or when he needed to access political juice.
However, as for Holmes sharing rooms with his brother, Mycroft, or teaming up with him—forget about that! They were brothers and sometimes associates, but they could never live together, nor be partners. They could barely tolerate each other!
Now a newspaper reporter might be an interesting choice. A competent writer and investigative journalist just might offer some positive contributions as a partner to Holmes, and a crime reporter even more so. The thought is intriguing. Even a muck-rake journalist of the so-called popular press might offer value by being able to reach into certain dark places, or contacting the right people to solve a crime. In fact, Doyle used exactly this device in the story of another of his famous heroes—newshound Malone in The Lost World played a definite Watson-like role as he told the story of Professor Challenger, and his unique talents and adventures. However, Holmes did not need to room and partner with a newspaperman, as he had access to them quite readily when needed. He also had access to many of the same contacts any good newshound would have. So a newspaperman’s qualities might actually be redundant. Also newspapermen could be very aggressive and such a man might reveal too much information, too soon, on his cases. Holmes could not abide that, so a journalist would not do.
So who then? For Holmes there is much to consider in choosing someone to share his work and life. This can be complicated because no one more than Holmes knows the dangers that a partner can be put in because of his line of work. Holmes deals with criminals and murderers all the time. These are enemies who would take revenge against him, and it is a fact he lives with every day. It is one reason, I believe, why Holmes does not involve himself romantically with the opposite sex. It is not because of some ill-gotten misogyny against women at all, in fact he loves and respects women—though he also knows they can be dangerous. Even deadly. However, Holmes knows that by becoming romantically involved with any woman, he would worry about her safety all the time. Holmes is aware any woman he loved would always be in danger and his enemies would seek to target her, to get to him. Any child born from such a union would make the danger far worse! Such a situation was unconscionable. Holmes could never allow anyone he loved to be placed in such mortal danger. Certainly not a woman he loved. So he closed that part of his life. Holmes gave up a lot in the pursuit of his profession. However, he still needed to find someone to share the rooms at 221B with, and that person would have to be someone special. Perhaps exceptional.
So what is it that makes Watson the perfect partner for Sherlock Holmes? We can trace the clues early on. They appear in the very first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet. Here, even before Stamford introduces Watson to Holmes, he tells Watson he knows a man who is looking to share rooms. Watson replies:
“By Jove!” I cried, “if he really wants someone to share the rooms and the expense, I am the very man for him. I should prefer having a partner to being alone.”
Already—even before he meets Holmes—Watson is thinking of Holmes as a potential partner! It is interesting that he uses that very word. However, in the very next paragraph of the story, Watson is warned.
Young Stamford looked rather strangely at me over his wine-glass. “You don’t know Sherlock Holmes yet,” he said, “perhaps you would not care for him as a constant companion.”
Once Watson is introduced to Holmes they speak about the rooms and the issue of compatibility comes up.
Sherlock Holmes seemed delighted at the idea of sharing his rooms with me.
“I have my eye on a suite in Baker Street,” he said, “which would suit us down to the ground. You don’t mind the smell of strong tobacco, I hope?”
“I always smoke ‘ships’’ myself,” I answered.
“That’s good enough. I generally have chemicals about, and occasionally do experiments. Would that annoy you?”
“By no means.”
“Let me see—what are my other shortcomings? I get in the dumps at times, and don’t open my mouth for days on end. You must not think I am sulky when I do that. Just leave me alone, and I’ll soon be right. What have you to confess now? It’s just as well for two fellows to know the worst of one another before they begin to live together.”
I laughed at this cross-examination. “I keep a bull pup.” I said, [Never again mentioned by Watson, G.L.] “and I object to rows because my nerves are shaken, and I get up at all sorts of ungodly hours, and I am extremely lazy. I have another set of vices when I am well, but those are the principal ones at present.”
Holmes was looking for a man who would be able to put up with his unique eccentricities, but who can also contribute to his work. That is where Watson comes in. John Watson is a retired army medical doctor whose military medical knowledge adds significantly to Holmes’s own. In fact, Watson brings vast medical knowledge to the table—and while Holmes has a middling amount of knowledge in this area—Watson is an expert in the field and his opinion is invaluable to Holmes in the examination of bodies and determining time and mode of death.
Furthermore, Watson as a military man, has seen active service in the front lines in Afghanistan, a particularly brutal war. He has been wounded. He has treated the wounded on the battlefield. He has seen all types of serious injuries and bullet wounds. His medical knowledge is vast and deep and of inestimable value to Holmes—and Holmes knows it! Watson has seen war and action up close. He is brave and loyal. He still has his army service revolver—which Holmes is aware of and often asks him to carry along on dangerous cases. In other words, Holmes knows that Watson—who he can count on as a de facto enforcer—is brave and loyal and will not shirk at the sight of action or violence. Watson is steadfast. Watson can also take care of himself with a gun, he is not afraid to use it when necessary, and he is brave under fire. These are valuable assets to Holmes. He respects Watson’s abilities.
However with Watson, Holmes gets much more. Watson is a good man, honest, trustworthy, he has a sense of humor, a well-rounded personality, and he is easy to be around. He is also a very decent fellow. The two men just naturally become good friends and get along well. These are character traits Holmes especially values, and they grow their relationship and friendship into a true partnership. And while Holmes took precautions when it came to Watson’s safety, he had confidence in the doctor’s ability to handle himself in any situation.
Furthermore, Watson is a writer, and he writes up Holmes’s cases and has them published in the popular press to world-wide acclaim. He does this to showcase his friend’s great talent and unique abilities. While Holmes allows these published reports of his cases so as to popularize his methods as a consulting detective—he is also serious about these reports so that law enforcement can improve by learning his methods. Holmes even writes and publishes his own monographs upon certain aspects of detective work. His well-known study of cigarette ash is a detailed and highly instructive work allowing the reader to determine exactly what type of cigarette a criminal may have smoked just from the remains of the ash. Using this information, cigarette ash at a crime scene can offer an important clue in finding a killer. Furthermore, Holmes himself wrote at least one of his own cases for publication in The Strand magazine under Watson’s name, (“The Adventure of The Lion’s Mane”, from 1907, but published in 1926). So we know that Holmes was not averse to having his methods, or knowledge of his cases made public, and Watson’s write-ups of his cases fulfilled this desire admirably.
I believe that no matter how much Holmes protested Watson’s use of melodrama in the writing of some of his cases, The Great Detective secretly enjoyed the acclaim and attention Watson’s chronicles brought him in the popular press. The writing and publication in The Strand of these cases by Watson warms Holmes’s ego, it is a recognition of his life and work, and I believe it means more to Holmes than he would like to admit.
After Watson moves in with Holmes he comments on his new roommate in A Study in Scarlet.
Holmes was certainly not a difficult man to live with. He was quiet in his ways, and his habits were regular. It was rare for him to be up after ten at night, and he had invariably breakfasted and gone out before I rose in the morning… Nothing could exceed his energy when the working fit was upon him, but now and again a reaction would seize him, and for days he would lie upon the sofa in the sitting-room, hardly uttering a word or moving a muscle from morning to night.
Obviously the two men are compatible. In the above statement Watson is being more than generous in his thoughts on life with Holmes. Their partnership and friendship grow over the years as Watson continually surprises Holmes with his loyalty, bravery, medical knowledge, and his writings of important cases—all of which show his devotion and admiration of Holmes. In fact, Holmes and Watson get along smashingly!
For Sherlock Holmes—there surely is no other choice—Watson is the perfect partner!
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Gary Lovisi is an MWA Edgar-nominated author for his Sherlock Holmes pastiche “The Adventure of The Missing Detective.” He is a Holmes fan, collector, and writes various articles and short stories of, and about, The Great Detective, some of which have appeared in this magazine. He is the editor of Paperback Parade and Hardboiled magazines, and of the Sherlock Holmes anthology, The Great Detective: His Further Adventures (Wildside Press). You can find out more about him and his work at his website: www.gryphonbooks.com, or on Facebook.