“then so prepare for war” [SECO]
General William Sherman once said, "War is hell." Partly because it's never-ending. In the mid- to late-20th century, historians Will and Ariel Durant estimated that over the past 3,421 years, humans experienced only about 268 scattered years without war.
In the Sherlock Holmes stories, we open with war: Watson introduces himself to us in A Study in Scarlet as a veteran wounded at the Battle of Maiwand. In The Sign of Four, we find ourselves at the Fort of Agra during a rebellion. During another rebellion in "The Crooked Man," one officer betrays another out of jealous love. Soldiers and veterans turn up throughout the Canon.
In fact, it extends to the final story (at least chronologically) in "His Last Bow," set on the very eve of the Great War in August 1914 — in which Holmes delivered his now-famous, almost prophetic line to Watson:
"There's an east wind coming... such a wind as never blew on England yet. It will be cold and bitter, and a good many of us may wither before its blast."
Other clients carry their own war histories: a Boer War veteran searching for a missing friend in "The Blanched Soldier," an admiral's son whose father commanded a fleet in the Crimean War in "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax," and a Confederate colonel from the American Civil War among the Openshaw family in "The Five Orange Pips," to name a few.
War is always with us. As are its participants and after-effects. Let's just hope we can keep conflict from happening at Baker Street Elementary...
Baker Street Elementary follows the original adventures of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, as they and their friends work through the issues of elementary school in Victorian London. An archive of all previous episodes can be viewed at the Baker Street Elementary website.
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