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1853/4

Sherlock Holmes born. In “His Last Bow” (a case which began in 1912) Holmes is described as “a man of sixty”. No location is given in the canon.

1872

Likely date at which Holmes goes to college. No college is mentioned in the canon although research suggests that Trinity College, Dublin and Oxford are the most likely.

1873/4

Likely date of “The Gloria Scott“ (Holmes talks of his “two years at college”). This was the case that Holmes states first turned his attention to the idea of detection as a profession. Also the dating of “The Affray at the Kildare Street Club“ and “The Bothersome Business of the Dutch Nativity.”

1875

Holmes became aware of the puzzle of “the disappearance of James Phillimore“ though the case was not concluded until 1906. Note also the apocryphal cases written as “The Highgate Miracle” by John Dickson Carr and set in December 1893, though this date is clearly wrong, and “The Case of the Vanishing Head-Waiter” by June Thomson.

1877

Holmes settles in rooms in Montague Street, London, spending most of his time studying various branches of science. “Now and again” cases came his way. He does not mention the first two but the third was “The Musgrave Ritual“, likely to have happened in 1878.

1878/80

Holmes investigates many cases, only a few of which are referred to. These include “The Tarleton Murders“, “Vamberry, the Wine Merchant“ [written up by A. Lloyd Taylor]; “The Adventure of the Old Russian Woman“ [written up as “The Case of the Old Russian Woman” by June Thomson], “The Singular Affair of the Aluminium Crutch“ [written up by several writers including H. Bedford-Jones], and “Ricoletti of the club-foot and his abominable wife“. Other stories may be set at this time, especially those listed in “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire” where Holmes’s comments suggest that Watson was not aware of the cases. These include “Victor Lynch the Forger“, “Venomous Lizard or Gila“, “Vanderbilt and the Yeggman“ [written up as “The Case of the Itinerant Yeggman” by June Thomson but dated June 1895 and to which she adds a sequel, “The Case of the Maplestead Magpie”] and “Vigor, the Hammersmith Wonder“ [written up as “The Case of the Hammersmith Wonder” by June Thomson but set in the early days with Watson; it is also incorporated in “The Case of the Paradol Chamber” by Alan Wilson]. In “The Speckled Band” Holmes is reminded of the case of “Mrs Farintosh and the Opal Tiara“ which was “before your time Watson”. Also to this period may be the cases referred to in “The Empty House”, especially “Mathews, who knocked out my left canine in the waiting-room at Charing Cross“, since Holmes needs to explain it to Watson, and perhaps also “Merridew of Abominable Memory“. Mortimer Mabley, referred to in “The Three Gables” was also one of Holmes’s earliest clients.

1880

July. The setting of “The Adventure of the Stalwart Companions” by H. Paul Jeffers in which Holmes and Theodore Roosevelt are involved in a US murder. This case has some possibilities but I regard it as highly apocryphal.

1881

January. Holmes and Watson meet. In the first few weeks at 221b Baker Street Watson observes various visitors, whose cases are not discussed. These include “a young girl, fashionably dressed“, a “Jewish peddler“, “a slipshod elderly woman“, “an old white-haired gentleman“ and “a railway porter“. There were also several visits by the police, especially by Lestrade, and Holmes later refers to helping him with “a forgery case“.

March. “A Study in Scarlet“.

October. “The Resident Patient“.

1882

February. “The Beryl Coronet“. Despite the argument by some commentators that no snow fell in London in February that year, this is clearly an early case because Watson is still a little surprised that Holmes urged him to accompany him. This month is almost certainly the setting for “Sherlock Holmes and the Case of Sabina Hall” by L.B. Greenwood. Winter. “The Devil’s Tunnel” by John Taylor.

1883

March. “Sherlock Holmes and the Somerset Hunt” by Rosemary