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A real-life Sherlock Holmes

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13 September 2024 / Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC
Issue: 8085 / Categories: Features , Criminal
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Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC reflects on the case of George Edalji & its consequences

A recent TV programme about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle reminded us that the creator of Sherlock Holmes once played the detective in real life. He was so outraged by what he believed to be the wrongful conviction and imprisonment of a young solicitor that he investigated the case himself.

The vicar’s son

George Edalji was the elder son of the vicar of St Mark’s parish church in the Staffordshire village of Great Wyrley. Rev Shapurji Edalji had been brought up as a Parsee in India, converted to Christianity, and gained entry to a theological college in England. In 1875, having married the niece of a former vicar, he settled in Great Wyrley with his wife and two sons. He remained there until his death in 1918.

Great Wyrley was a mining village surrounded by farmland. There George grew up, went to school and, after securing articles in Birmingham, qualified as a solicitor. He continued to live

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