Elementary my Dear Watson

 

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson

Elementary my Dear Watson, I do enjoy  partaking and challenge my grey matter and test the compliers of these Daily Express crosswords, thought Sherlock Holmes.

Plymouth Brethren Meeting Room
Old Chapel 
Green Lane Cemetery, Farnham

During my working day today, I cut through a cemetery, Green Lane Cemetery, Farnham.  As things goes, this a completely new cemetery, having been opened 1914.  The little chapel, which could seat 80 people, has been sold by the Farnham Town Council in recent years, and having been purchased by Plymouth Brethren, to use as their meeting room.

There are 13 military burials, 2 dating from the First World War and the rest, 11 from the Second World War.

However, one of the three notable burials, is that of Eille Norwood.

Eille Norwood
as
Sherlock Holmes

Eille Norwood, born Anthony Edward Brett, October 1861, was a stage actor, director and playwright, best known for portraying Sherlock Holmes, during a number of silent films.

Brett used the staged name Ellie Norwood, taking former name the female name, Ellie,  from a woman, Eileen whom he loved.  The surname, Norwood, from the Norwood, south-east London, where he lived.

Taking to the stage professional during 1884, Norwood, worked with the F. R. Benson’s Shakespearean company. Norwood was active on the stage until 1892, when he was taken ill, and he didn’t recover until 1899.

From December 1914 till July 1916, Norwood directed the successful play The Man Who Stayed Home, which ran for 584 performances.

The Man Who Stayed Home, was written by J. E. Harold Terry and Lechmere Worrall, the play is set during the First World War.  The play is three acts and set in a boarding house called the 'Wave Crest Hotel' on the English coast. Christopher Brent is ‘The Man who...’, a character viewed by other characters as lazy and cowardly for his refusal to enlist as a soldier. However, it soon becomes clear to the audience that he is actually a British secret agent attempting to uncover a group of German spies, based in the hotel, who are sending information to Germany using a wireless machine hidden in the fireplace. The Examiner of Plays, George Street, described it as 'a really good play about spies, with possible people and incidents and without any foolish violence of language. The plot, as is usual with good detective stories and plays, is full of incident'

From 1921 to 1923, Norwood, played Sherlock Holmes, in 47 silent films, alongside Hubert Willis who portrayed Doctor Watson.

Some of the notable Sherlock Holmes films include, The Hounds of the Baskervilles, 1921 being the first film to be adapted from the novel of the same name, The Hounds of the Baskervilles, 1902.

The novel, originally serialised in The Strand Magazine, during August 1901 to April 1902, is largely set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome, diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr. Watson investigate the case. 

The film, thought have been filmed in Dartmoor itself was actually filmed in a village of Thursley, Surrey.  It is a village, where during his youth, Sir Edwin Lutyens grew up, and some of his earlies architectural works can be found.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who  himself enjoyed film, stated “Mr. Ellie Norwood, whose wonderful personification of Holmes has amazed me. On seeing him in The Hound of the Baskervilles I thought I had never seen anything more masterly”

Conan Dole wrote the short story after returning home Undershaw, Hindhead, from South Africa, where he worked as a volunteer physician during the Second Boer War.  Conan Doyle had written about Sherlock Holmes for over 8 years, having killed the characters off in the 1893 book, The Final Problem. The Hounds of the Baskervilles is set before 1893.  Tow year later, with the release of The Adventure of the Empty House,     Holmes explained that he had faked his own death.

Other novels, where the main character has ‘faked’ their death, are Huckleberry Finn, to escape his  drunken father and the strict legal guardian, in Mark Twain’s novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884, also Reginal Perrin, in David Nobbs’ novel The Death of Reginal Perrin, 1975.

Norwood final Sherlock Holmes film was The Sign of Four, 1923.  Doctor Watson is portrayed by Arthur M. Cullin.  Norwood was not impressed with Cullin performance.

The Sign of Four, is based on the 1890 novel of the same name The Sign of Four.  The novel, is set in 1888, has a complex plot involving service in India, the Indian Mutiny of 1857, a stolen treasure, and a secret pact among four convicts ("the Four" of the title) and two corrupt prison guards. It presents Holmes's drug habit and humanizes him in a way that had not been done in the preceding novel, A Study in Scarlet (1887). It also introduces Dr. Watson's future wife, Mary Morstan

The Thames was chosen for the location of a climactic chase.

Norwood who was a complier of the crosswords that were published in the Daily Express.

Another film that Norwood stared in was the 1921, Gwyneth of the Welsh Hills.  the novel of the same name, Gwyneth of the Welsh Hills  written by Edith Nepean is about a girl who learns about her marriage was faked and then weds a cleric.

Ruth Mackay

Norwood died Christmas Eve, 1948 and living his later years at Corner Cottage, Waverley Lane, Farnham, with his wife Ruth Mackay, and buried at Green Lane Cemetery

Mary Edith Nepean 

Mary Edith Nepean born 1876, Llandudno.  During the First World War, Nepean volunteered for the Red Cross.  1917, she wrote her first novel, Gwyneth of the Welsh Hills, and dedicated it to the Welsh prime Minister David Lloyd George, who advised her to start writing professionally.  Nepean went on to write a further 30 novels.  Also, Nepean wrote a column for the Picture Show Magazine, where she took the readers behind the scenes of the studios of Elstree, Pinewood and Shepperton.

Nepean did have a large circle of friends including the Cardiff born Ivor Novello, however, at the time of her death, 1960, she only had four mourners attending her funeral.