"I grieve to say" [ILLU]
We just learned of the passing of H. Paul Jeffers, BSI ("Wilson Hargreave") on December 4. There's something of a personal connection here, but first, let's put the facts in front of you, as Sherlock Holmes would prefer. But fair warning: there are many links to click through if you're up to the task.
Paul was an author and a journalist and was prolific in all of his writing. And to know Paul was to understand how diverse his interests were. They ranged from Sherlock Holmes to Americana, from smoking (The Perfect Pipe) to religious topics (Dark Mysteries of the Vatican
The American icons in Jeffers' works included Theodore Roosevelt - Roosevelt the Explorer: T.R.'s Amazing Adventures as a Naturalist, Conservationist, and Explorer and
His works that involved Sherlock Holmes include Murder Most Irregular
As you can see, quite prolific. And this isn't even the end of it. Take a look at his Amazon page
I was lucky enough to meet Paul at a meeting of the Men on the Tor - the first Sherlock Holmes society I belonged to. It was after I left Connecticut to head to college, and I returned for a meeting at the Griswold Inn in Essex, CT. I remember sitting next to him and admiring the Peterson's Sherlock Holmes pipe that he was smoking. We got to talking and he told me about the two books he wrote about Holmes, as well as his car-less existence; he traveled to meetings via train (or ride-sharing, in some cases). We struck up a correspondence and one day a package arrived in the mail from Paul: he sent me those two books, inscribed. I still have them in my collection and I'll always treasure them.
In 1999, Paul received his investiture from the BSI, which was "Wilson Hargreave," after the detective who made an appearance in Stalwart Companion. If you have a memory of Paul, please feel free to share it in the comments section below.
Note: From time to time, we run obituaries here on the I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere, to honor those Irregulars who have passed beyond the Reichenbach, aided by the BSI's Angel of Death, Francine Kitts. You can find previous entries by clicking on the "terrace" label at the end of the post. The reference to the terrace is from "His Last Bow
"Stand with me here upon the terrace, for it may be the last quiet talk that we shall ever have."
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