Minor Sherlock Holmes characters

This article describes minor characters from the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and from non-canonical derived works.

Inspector Baynes of the Surrey Constabulary appears in the two-part story "The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge", subtitled (i) "The Singular Experience of Mr John Scott Eccles", and (ii) "The Tiger of San Pedro".

In this story, the reader finds that, despite working along different lines, Holmes and Baynes both arrive at the correct conclusion and solve the case at the same time.

He claims to have been in the force since 1862 ("The Man with the Twisted Lip") but in June 1889 Dr Watson writes he is in B (Chelsea) Division to oversee "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle".

Bradstreet is not a martinet; in "The Man with the Twisted Lip" he could have prosecuted the false beggar, but chose to overlook this action to spare Neville St Clair the trauma of shaming his wife and children.

[2] In the 1952–1969 series of Sherlock Holmes BBC radio adaptations, Bradstreet was played by Ronald Baddiley in the 1959 dramatisation of "The Man with the Twisted Lip".

Gregson is tall, "tow-headed" (fair-haired) in contrast to the shorter Lestrade's dark "ferretlike" (narrow) features and has "fat, square hands".

Gregson climbed the stair to arrest this desperate murderer with the same absolutely quiet and businesslike bearing with which he would have ascended the official staircase of Scotland Yard.

Inspector Stanley Hopkins is a Scotland Yard detective and a student of Holmes's deductive methods, who attempts to apply them in his own investigations.

[18] In the Granada Television series Sherlock Holmes, Inspector Hopkins was played by Paul Williamson in "The Abbey Grange" (1986) and by Nigel Planer in "The Golden Pince-Nez" (1994).

He arrests the entire household of Bartholomew Sholto, including his brother and servants, on suspicion of his murder, but is forced to release all but one of them, much to his own embarrassment.

[21] Siôn Probert also played Athelney Jones in two episodes of the BBC radio series The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, "The Singular Inheritance of Miss Gloria Wilson" (2002) and "The Thirteen Watches" (2009).

[23] In the first episode of the seventh season of Elementary, titled "The Further Adventures" (2019), Holmes and Watson work as consulting detectives for Scotland Yard with DCI Athelney Jones, who is portrayed by Tamsin Greig.

[27] MacDonald is played by Dennis Bateman and David Natale in the American radio series The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, in which he is a recurring character.

[28] Billy is Holmes's young page, appearing in the stories The Valley of Fear, "The Problem of Thor Bridge" and "The Mazarin Stone".

The fifth season of the TV show Elementary introduced an updated version of the character (played by Nelsan Ellis) as both a former patient of Watson's and ex-convict now attempting to go straight.

At the end of the story the main treasure is lost - rather to Watson's relief, since if she had been a rich heiress, his proposing to her might have been considered the act of a fortune hunter.

Her mother died sometime before 1878 and she had no other relatives in England, although she was educated there (in accordance with the practice of the time about European children in British-ruled India) until the age of seventeen.

Langdale Pike is a celebrated gossipmonger whose columns are published in numerous magazines and newspapers (referred to as the "garbage papers" by Watson).

[42] "Langdale" is used as a British Intelligence codename in the first episode of the fourth series of Sherlock, along with "Porlock," the name of another Holmes informer in the original stories.

[45] The film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (1970), directed by Billy Wilder, features a character called Wiggins (played by Graham Armitage) who is a footman at the Diogenes Club.

The 1989–1991 animated television series Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century features a version of the character also named Wiggins, voiced by Viv Leacock.

[47] Wiggins returns in the sequel The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Rose Tattoo (1996), voiced by Paul Vincent Black.

Morland Holmes is the influential businessman and father of Sherlock and Mycroft, played by John Noble in the TV adaptation Elementary.

The character (as "Sherringford") appears along with his brothers in the Virgin New Adventures Doctor Who novel All-Consuming Fire by Andy Lane, where he is revealed to be the member of a cult worshiping an alien telepathic slug that is mutating him and his followers into an insect-like form; the novel culminates with Holmes being forced to shoot his brother to save Watson.

[55] He also appears, accused of a murder that Sherlock must find him innocent of, in the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game adventure The Yorkshire Horrors.

[56] Sherrinford also appears in the Italian comic series Storie da Altrove (a spin-off of Martin Mystère) as the eldest brother, born nine years before him, of Sherlock himself.

In her following The Consulting Detective trilogy, Siger disowns Sherlock over his choice not to join the family business and use his gifts to become a forensic investigator.

Lupa, a secret agent during the First World War, is strongly implied to be the younger version of fictional detective Nero Wolfe in the mystery series by Rex Stout.

Both she and her husband believe Holmes to be deceased at this time, though canon stories imply that he is working undercover for Britain's war efforts.