Mary Watson: In the Shadow of Sherlock Holmes

London, end of the century, the capital of the largest empire of the world: a sprawling city populated by millions of people. Yet not all that glitters is gold. Behind, or rather beneath the lights and extravagance, the theaters and music, and the crowds, there are enormous social contradictions slowly coming to light. The industrial slums, inhumane working conditions, widespread prostitution, massive exploitation of child labor, alcoholism, overcrowding, poverty, and hunger. Masses of destitute people struggling to survive, tuberculosis, crime, and moral hardships.

Mary Watson was 27 years old when she met Watson, and she had always been a beacon to those in need, as her husband put it (TWIS: Folk who were in grief came to my wife like birds to a lighthouse).

Slowly, in her concern for others, she found herself battling abuse, injustice, and horrors. She fought with the tools she had, the examples before her: the unwavering integrity and courage of John Watson, the deductive prowess of Sherlock Holmes. She engaged with Catholics, socialists, the Salvation Army, trade unions, and anyone willing to do something to save a life, and she never held back.

This is the chronicle of her adventures, as she left it in a series of recently discovered writings. Some tell us a couple of Watson's stories, but they present them through her eyes. Of others, we had never known anything, and probably neither had Watson.