Who was Watson?
Sir: I see from Isabel Quigly's review on Ivor Brown's biography of Conan Doyle (June 10) that Dr Watson is presumed to have been based on a real-life doctor of that name. There was of course a Dr James Watson, a friend of Conan Doyle's in .Southsea and a leading member of the Portsmouth Literary and Scientific Society. But is it
likely that Conan Doyle would have left the name unchanged when creating the narrator of the Sherlock Holmes stories?
While researching the life of Conan Doyle for a play recently broadcast, I came across an alternative explanation of Dr Watson's probable origins. Conan Doyle had for many years a secretary, Alfred Wood, known to the writer and his family as 'Woody.'
Wood bore a striking physical resemblance to Dr Watson, as did his character: a loveable man by all accounts, solid in the right way, genial, dependable, of burly build and military appearance. (He later became Major Wood during World War 1.)
There seems little doubt that it was Wood who served as the prototype for Dr Watson, a theory supported also by Adrian, Conan Doyle's son who managed the literary estate in Switzerland until his untimely death last year. Roger Woddis 77 Woodland Rise, London N10
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