Charles Altamont Doyle

A member of an artistic family, he is remembered today primarily for being the father of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of fictional character Sherlock Holmes.

To support his growing family, in addition to full-time employment Doyle continued to produce illustrations for at least 23 books, as well as several designs for journals.

These included editions of The Pilgrim's Progress (1860) and Robinson Crusoe (1861), Beauty and the Beast (late 1860s), The Queens of Society (1872), and Our Trip to Blunderland (1877) a parody of Lewis Carroll.

While there, his depression grew worse, and he began experiencing epileptic seizures and problems with short-term memory loss due to the effects of long term drinking.

[10] During his period at the asylum he continued to work, producing volumes of drawings and watercolours in sketchbooks with fantasy themes such as elves, faerie folk, and scenes of death and heavenly redemption.

His accompanying notes featured wordplay and visual puns, described as a "sort of bucolic phantasmagoria: mammoth lilypads and leafy branches, giant birds and mammals, sinister blossoms sheltering demons and damsels alike".

His son, Arthur Conan Doyle, remembered his father with affection, describing him in his autobiography as "...full of the tragedy of unfulfilled powers and of underdeveloped gifts.