Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The curious case of Sherlock Holmes’ creator and his only real-life investigation
New book probes author’s fight to clear race hate victim
It was a mystery to tax the intellect of Sherlock Holmes, a baffling case of poison pen letters, a horse-mutilating maniac and a corrupt police chief. George Edalji, son of the first South Asian vicar of an English parish, was falsely accused of hideous violence in a sleepy village.
And his was the only case Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle ever investigated personally.
The fantastic true story, as strange as any to flow from the pen of England’s master crimewriter, is told in a new book by Shrabani Basu.
She says: “Conan Doyle feels this is a huge miscarriage of justice and it’s for him to defend this cause. It’s the only case he investigates personally wearing the hat of Sherlock Holmes.”
George Edalji was a shy and awkward boy, hampered by poor eyesight and singled out because of his race. But he was also one of the brightest in school.
Out of the blue, his family started receiving hateful letters targeting him.
Shrabani, who found the letters as she delved through archives, says: “They’re chilling. It’s not just words, it’s sketches, bits of paper shredded and dropped under the door filled with abusive language and race hate.”
The letters mysteriously stopped between 1895 and 1903. But in February that year a series of horrifying horse killings began and the letters started again, pointing the finger at George, by this time a 28-year-old solicitor in Birmingham.
There was no evidence he had anything to do with the crimes but he was arrested and put on trial.
Shrabani says of the killings in Great Wyrley, Staffs: “The police couldn’t catch the culprit or couldn’t be bothered but George was local and that was enough.
“It took just 55 minutes for the jury to find him guilty.
“It was a complete sham. He was given seven years’ penal servitude, a very harsh term.”
George was freed on parole after three years but the conviction hung over him and he was not allowed to practise as a lawyer. He wrote to the only person he thought could clear him and, remarkably, Conan Doyle agreed to a meeting at the Grand Hotel in Charing Cross, London. Says Shrabani: “It’s very QUEST Writer Shrabani scoured old letters
Just like Holmes, Conan Doyle weighs up the man by his eyesight and his shoes SHRABANI BASU ON AUTHOR’S VENTURE INTO REAL DETECTIVE WORK
Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle stands there and observes him, just like his detective creation.
“He identifies where he’s come from, what his ailment is, the shoes he’s wearing. “He immediately knows George can’t be guilty because he is reading a paper close to his face. “He thinks: ‘Someone with such bad eyesight could not have crossed fields on a windy, rainy night and slashed animals’. “George tells Conan Doyle his v neith the f
Ge Edal the r Persi
He to C beco Asia
W into in th marr whol and
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vision was not brought up in the trial, her was the campaign of race hate family experienced.” eorge was the eldest son of Shapurji lji, a Parsee whose family followed religion that arrived in India from ia in the 7th century. e was shunned when he converted hristianity, moving to England to ome, in 1876, the nation’s first South n parish priest.
When he and wife Charlotte moved the vicarage it caused shock waves he district. Shrabani says: “Mixed riages were frowned upon so the le village looked down on the family their mixed-race children.” onan Doyle was so outraged by rge’s case he wrote a two-part article national newspaper debunking every aspect. It caused a sensation around the world.
Shrabani says: “The headlines were: ‘Sherlock Holmes investigates Edalji case’. ‘Wyrley Ripper investigated by no less than Sherlock Holmes’. George had stardust reflecting on him.”
The author went even further, visiting Great Wyrley and questioning the family and villagers.
But his interference angered the police, who had failed to catch the true culprit and were being shamed in the newspapers.
Shrabani based much of her book on letters that surfaced in 2015 between Conan Doyle and police chief G. A. Anson, the man who accused George.
The documents said Staffordshire police fabricated evidence to try to discredit Conan Doyle’s investigation. The author had another suspect in mind, local apprentice butcher Royden Sharp, who went to sea on a cattle ship.
Shrabani says: “He was away between 1895 and 1903, the gap between the first batch of letters and the killings.”
Conan Doyle sent his findings to Anson. However, the chief constable had no desire to be taught policing by a fiction writer and the more Conan Doyle badgered, the more he dug in his heels.”
The case was never officially solved. George was never awarded compensation but for him it didn’t matter.
All he cared about was clearing his name, getting back to work and making a life-long friend in Conan Doyle. After
the writer argued that racial prejudice among the police and judiciary led to a miscarriage of justice, the Home Secretary announced a committee of inquiry.
It reported that George was innocent and recommended a free pardon.
The lawyer’s friendship with the author, who died in 1930, was to prove long lasting.
In 1907 he attended Conan Doyle’s wedding to second wife Jean.
Shrabani says: “He was so proud. Conan Doyle said George was the guest he was most honoured to have, which is really something.
“He really liked George. You can see in the way he writes about the family that he finds them all very endearing and very genuine.”
After his parents died, George and his
sister Maud moved to Welwyn Garden City, Herts, where he lived until his death at 77 in 1953. Shrabani spent one hot summer’s afternoon in 2019 scouring a cemetery to find his headstone.
She says: “I had to rip weeds off this little bit of stone, it’s not a well-marked grave. I didn’t expect it to be in such a state. It’s sad but I had to see it.
“The positive to take from George’s story is that not just Conan Doyle but a lot of other people felt there had been a miscarriage and fought his cause.
“There are those who attack you but there are always those who are prepared to stand up for you.”
The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer, Shrabani Basu, Bloomsbury, £20, out now © Shrabani Basu 2021.