Doyle, RICHARD, caricaturist, was born in London in 1824, second son of John Doyle (1797-1868), who was himself a celebrated caricaturist, under the signature H. B. He received instruction in art from his father, and became a contributor to Punch, the current design on the cover being from his pencil, and furnished its pages with the well-known sketches of 'Ye Manners and Customs of ye Englyshe.' In 1850 his connection with Punch ceased, owing to its criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church, of which he was a member, and he afterwards employed himself in the illustration of books. Among his works of this nature may be mentioned the Adventures of Brown, Jones, and Robinson, and the illustrations to the Newcomes, the Scouring of the White Horse, to Leigh Hunt's Jar of Honey, and Ruskin's King of the Golden River. He contributed 'Sketches of Modern Society' to the Cornhill Magazine, and published a Christmas book for 1869, called In Fairy Land. Doyle drew with care, accuracy, and skill thousands of animated little figures, and his caricatures are all distinguished by the most genial humour, and the most graceful drawing. He was also a clever painter in water-colours, and his work in this medium was frequently exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery. He died December 11, 1883.
His nephew, A. CONAN DOYLE, was born at Edinburgh in 1859, and educated at Stonyhurst and in Germany. He studied medicine at Edinburgh in 1876-80, and practised as a doctor at Southsea in 1882-90, subsequently devoting himself wholly to literature. His debut was an article in Chambers's Journal in 1879; and The Captain of the Polestar (1887), A Study in Scarlet (1888), The Mystery of Cloomber (1888), Micah Clarke (1889), and The White Company (1891) were early stories. But it was by the preternatural acumen of the hero of his detective stories, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (originally in the Strand Magazine; as books, 1892 and 1893), that Conan Doyle became known to a very wide circle of readers. Later novels are The Refugees, The Red Lamp, The Stark-Munro Letters (1895), and Rodney Stone (1896); a play, A Story of Waterloo; and The Great Boer War (1900), incorporating his experiences as a surgeon in the field. In 1900 he was Unionist candidate for the Edinburgh Central division, but was defeated.