Freedom

Arthur Conan Doyle was born one of ten siblings on 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, Charles Altamont Doyle, was of Irish descent, and his mother, née Mary Foley, was Irish. They were married in 1855.[2]
Although he is now referred to as "Conan Doyle", the origin of this compound surname (if that is how he meant it to be understood) is uncertain. The entry in which his baptism is recorded in the register of St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh gives 'Arthur Ignatius Conan' as his Christian name, and simply 'Doyle' as his surname. It also names Michael Conan as his godfather.[3]
Conan Doyle was sent to the Roman Catholic Jesuit preparatory school Hodder Place, Stonyhurst, at the age of nine. He then went on to Stonyhurst College, but by the time he left the school in 1875 he had rejected Christianity to become an agnostic.[citation needed]
From 1876 to 1881 he studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, including a period working in the town of Aston (now a district of Birmingham) and in Sheffield.[4] While studying, Conan Doyle also began writing short stories; his first published story appeared in Chambers's Edinburgh Journal before he was 20.[5] Following his term at university, he was employed as a ship's doctor on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast. He completed his doctorate on the subject of tabes dorsalis in 1885.[6] In 1882 he joined former classmate George Budd as his partner at a medical practice in Plymouth,[7] but their relationship proved difficult, and Conan Doyle soon left to set up an independent practice.[8] Arriving in Portsmouth in June of that year with less than £10 to his name, he set up a medical practice at 1 Bush Villas in Elm Grove, Southsea.[9] The practice was initially not very successful; while waiting for patients, Conan Doyle again began writing stories. His first significant work, A Study in Scarlet, appeared in Beeton's Christmas Annual for 1887. It featured the first appearance of Sherlock...