Monthly Archives: March 2012

by

All Aboard – The Kindertransports

You’re being chased out of town. There are riots in the streets. You’re not allowed to go to the cinema, the theatre, to public swimming-pools, restaurants or libraries. You can’t use public transport. Your movements are restricted by a nightly curfew. Every single day brings more challenges, more uncertainty, and even more danger.

But then you hear of this scheme, this program, this initiative. If you take part in it, in a few days’ time, you can escape all this unhappiness. You can be safe and happy and welcomed, in a land where nobody can hurt you. And you can leave right now.

But only you.

Your parents can’t come. Your grandparents have to stay behind. Your uncle and aunt won’t be there to see you leave.

You’re five…six…seven years old. You’re going to a country that you’ve probably never been to before. In all likelihood, you don’t even speak the language. Once in this new country, you cannot leave. You stay there for nearly ten years before you can return to a home that might not exist anymore, to find a family that has been wiped off the face of the earth.

This is the story of the Kindertransports.

What were the Kindertransports?

The Kindertransports was a refugee program established by the British Government in November, 1938. It was designed to evacuate persecuted Jewish children from Germany, Austria and Czechslovakia in the months leading up to the outbreak of World War Two, and to give them shelter and refuge in the relative safety of the British Isles. The program lasted from shortly after Kristallnacht in Germany, to shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War in early September, 1939. About 10,000 Jewish German, Austrian and Czech boys and girls were evacuated from their homelands to England, to protect them from rising Nazi antisemitism on the European continent. It is one of the forgotten stories of the Second World War.

What was Kristallnacht?

“Kristallnacht”, a German phrase commonly translated into English as ‘The Night of Broken Glass’, was a nationwide pogrom (essentially a race-riot) of Germany’s Jewish population in November of 1938. In the space of a few hours, thousands of Jewish shops were smashed, burned and ransacked. Windows were broken, shops looted and over two hundred synagogues were burnt down. Many Jews were either shot or arrested and thrown in jail. More were tortured or sent to concentration-camps. It was the most extreme anti-Jewish measure taken by the German Nazi-Party before the outbreak of the Second World War.

The Effect of Kristallnacht

Jews had been fleeing from Germany ever since 1933. In 1935, various ‘Nuremberg Laws’ (a collection of anti-Jewish laws) made life increasingly more intolerable for Germany’s Jewish population. It was during this time that many forward-thinking Jews tried to escape from Germany. A few lucky thousand managed to get ships to England or the United States. Some went to the Dominican Republic. About 30,000 Jews fled to the International Settlement of Shanghai between 1933-1941.

But life for Jews who were stuck in Germany, and who weren’t able to escape, became more and more desperate and difficult with each passing day. Kristallnacht terrified the Jews and appalled the British Government. More than ever, letters pleading for the British Government to issue visas to Jews desperate to escape Germany, came flooding in.

The problem was that the British Government was unwilling to act. The year is 1938. The Depression is only just beginning to ease. The British Government did not want to allow Jews into the British Isles, who might steal jobs that were badly needed for British workers. Above all, the British Government did not see the situation in Germany as being one of refuge, but rather as one of immigration. To the eyes of the British Government, the German Jews wanted to come to Britain to work, not to escape the persecution of the Nazis. On top of this, fears of war with Germany have been growing for months now. British families are evacuating their own children to the countryside, or to towns and villages out of the expected operational radius of German fighter and bomber-planes. How could the government also take in thousands of German Jewish refugees? There wouldn’t be anywhere to house them! Orphanages, schools and foster-families were having enough issues coping with British children, let alone all these continental refugees!

But public pressure forced the government’s hand. In the end, a compromise was reached – Jewish children, unaccompanied by their parents, would be allowed passage from Germany to England. The British Government could be seen to be doing its part in trying to help Jews evacuate from Germany, but at the same time, British jobs wouldn’t be threatened since the refugees wouldn’t be old enough to work. It wouldn’t be easy, what with British children also being evacuated from all the big cities in southern England, but the government was determined to make some sort of effort.

How did the Kindertransports Work?

You are a Jewish child living in Germany in 1939. You want to be a part of these ‘Kindertransports’ that you’ve heard about. How do you join in?

Jewish children were rounded up. They were assembled in places like schools or orphanages, and then taken to the nearest train-station. Entire classes or orphanages of Jewish children, would be packed up and sent by train from Berlin, Vienna or Prague, to cities in Holland and Belgium (if you didn’t live in Berlin, Vienna or Prague, then you would have to travel there to get on the trains). Once in Holland or Belgium, you would be loaded onto a ship bound for England. Once the ship docked on the coast of England, you would be sent by train to cities or towns in southern England where you would be placed with a foster family, or housed in an orphanage. Perhaps, if you were exceptionally lucky, you might get to stay with relatives already living in England.

But once you reached England, there you had to stay. The outbreak of war meant that you wouldn’t be able to go back to Germany, or German-occupied Europe until May, 1945.

The British government was pressured by Jewish aid agencies, humanitarian groups and refugee advocates for weeks. It eventually set into motion a scheme for evacuating children from Europe.

How Long did the Transports Last?

The kindertransports lasted for approximately a year. The first transport docked in England on the 2nd of December, 1938. The ship left Europe and sailed for the coastal town of Harwich, carrying 196 German Jewish children, who had been evacuated from their orphanage in Berlin (which had been destroyed by the Nazis).


Some of the children in the first Kindertransport, photographed here in Holland, awaiting their ship to England. December 1st, 1938

Every child that was evacuated from Europe was given a bond of fifty pounds sterling, and was issued with a temporary travel permit or visa, that allowed him or her to leave Europe and travel to England. But this was only available to children who were below the age of 17. The expectation of the British government was that once the crisis and anti-Jewish fervor had died down, all the children would be sent back to Germany to be reunited with their families. If they’d know what would happen in just a few months, they might’ve tried even harder with their evacuation-plans…

In Europe, the kindertransports were handled by religious leaders and humanitarian workers who sent trainloads of children from schools and orphanages to the Belgian and Dutch coastlines where they could be sent to England. In groups of a thousand, or a few hundred each time, it’s estimated that about 10,000 children in total, were evacuated before the outbreak of the Second World War.

Life in England

You have escaped Germany. You reached Berlin, you got on a train, you arrived in Belgium and got safely across the English Channel to a British port.

Now what?

As I said earlier, most children were taken in by foster-families or private sponsers. If you were one of these children, then it meant a further train-ride from your port of arrival to the British capital, London, where you would be collected at the station, or at a designated collection-point, by your sponser or foster-family. Other children were taken in by local families living near the arrival port. Leftover children were kept in transit-camps until such a time when they could be sent to specially-prepared orphanages. About half the transported children were taken in by foster families or sponsers, while the rest ended up in boarding schools, orphanages, youth hostels or on farms as farmhands.


Monument to the Kindertransports, Liverpool Street Station, London, England

For most children, life was pretty good. They received gifts and they were mostly well-treated by their host-families, although of course, there were a few which weren’t. Most of the older children found work as farmhands, general labourers or as domestic servants. The oldest of the older children even signed up to join the British Army when they reached the age of 18, determined to fight the people who had driven them out of their homeland in the first place.

The Effect of War on the Kindertransports

The start of the Second World War effectively ended the Kindertransports. In England, a wave of anti-German feeling swept through the country. Thousands of Germans and Austrians were rounded up, arrested and thrown in prison. Among these were abut a thousand kindertransport refugees who looked old enough to be young adults. It was feared by the British Government that these “enemy aliens” might try and sabotage the British war-effort. To try and render them a negligable force, they were packed onto ships and sent to Canada and Australia.

The purpose of the internments was to seperate legitimate refugees of Nazism, from German and Austrian expatriates, who the British government saw as a threat. But in the chaos following the fall of France, everything got mixed up.

The most famous case was that of the HMT Dunera. HMT stands for “His Majesty’s Transport”; the Dunera was a military troopship. Crammed onto it were 2,542 prisoners, double the ship’s actual capacity. They included a smattering of German and Italian P.O.Ws, Nazi-sympathisers, and in one of the biggest blunders ever – about two thousand mostly German or Austrian Jewish refugees, including kindertransport children. The inclusion of the Jewish refugees on the prison-ship was a shameful disaster, one which Churchill himself called a deplorable and regrettable incident.

Where was the ship going?

It left Liverpool on the 10th of July, 1940. It sailed without incident, all the way to the other side of the world! It docked in Sydney, Australia, two months later. The desperately overcrowded ship (which was only supposed to hold 1,600 people) bcame notorious for the cramped, crowded and unsanitary conditions onboard. Australian customs and medical officials, who boarded the ship when it docked in Sydney, were appalled by the conditions in which two thousand Jewish refugees, and about 540 P.O.Ws, were forced to spend two months at sea in!


The Dunera docked in Port Melbourne, Australia, 1940

The prisoners onboard ship, including the Jewish refugees, were herded into prisoner-of-war camps in Australia. Eventually, letters sent to England by the refugees made the government realise that they’d made a horrific mistake! Changes were implemented and the Jews were automatically segregated from the German and Italian P.O.Ws and Nazi-sympathisers, and given their own camp. Here, they received medical treatment and whatever food and water the Australian government could spare. They were classified as “friendly aliens”, who posed no threat to the war-effort of the British Empire.

Of the Jewish refugees who somehow ended up in Australia on the Dunera, about a thousand of them stayed in Australia where they were offered permanent residency by the Australian government. Several hundred of the younger refugees enlisted in the Australian Army to fight the Japanese and the Germans. The remainder of the refugees booked passages back to England on the next available ship.

The Last Transports

The Kindertransports ended officially on the 1st of September, 1939, the day that Germany invaded Poland. On this day, the borders were closed and trains were no-longer allowed to pass freely between the countries of Europe.

The Winton Trains

The Winton trains were a small number of trains that ran from Czechslovakia to safe ports in Western Europe, transporting Czech Jewish children to safety in England. They are named after Sir Nicholas Winton, the young British businessman who initiated the scheme. Sir Nicholas and his trains managed to save nearly 700 Jewish children from death.

The number would’ve been 950 children, but the start of the war ended Sir Nicholas’s humanitarian efforts. When war broke out in early September of 1939, the ninth (and final) Winton train was stopped at the Czech border. Nearly all the 250 Jewish children onboard were eventually killed.

In 2009, a commemorative “Winton Train” ran from Czechslovakia to England to commemorate Sir Nicholas’s efforts. Onboard the train were Jewish survivors who escaped the Holocaust on the original Winton trains back in 1939, and their descendants. The commemoration was also a celebration of Sir Nicholas’s 100th birthday! As of the time of this post, Sir Nicholas is 102 years old.

The very last Kindertransport left Europe on the 14th of May, 1940. It was the steamship Bodegraven, which left the Dutch port city of Ijmuiden (“Ei-mouden”) during the fall of Holland. It carried eighty incredibly lucky children to safety in England.

Of the 10,000 Jewish children and teenagers who escaped the Nazis during the Holocaust thanks to the kindertransports, nearly none of them ever saw their parents ever again.

More Information?

The Kindertransport Association

“The Kindertransports: A Childhood in Hamburg”, by Paul M. Cohn, a Kindertransport survivor.

 
by

Choking or Charming? The History of Ties and How to Tie One

Ties. They can look flashy, fashionable and snappy, or they can bring back visions of boardrooms, the office, school or military dress-uniforms. They can be stylish and colourful, or they can be choking and restrictive, or possibly inducive of autoerotic asphyxiation…which might not be a bad thing. But I digress; fewer articles of clothing are more polarising to men other than whether you would, do, would not, or do not, choose to wear a tie.

Some people wear ties on a regular basis as part of a uniform. Some men wear ties because they’re part of their personal style or ‘look’. Personally, I’m in the camp of the latter. I started regularly wearing ties again about two years ago, and I’m still wearing them regularly today. In fact, I’m wearing one right now as I type this.

But how long have men been putting things around their necks? Where did they come from? Why on earth would someone do this?

The History of Neckwear

People have been putting on neckcloths for centuries. The modern necktie and its cousin, the bowtie, the two most common neck-coverings today, were descendants of one of the most common neck-coverings of the 17th century – the Cravat.

The cravat, a wide, scarf-like neck-cloth tied loosely around the throat, was the neck-covering of choice from the 1600s up to the 1800s. Some people who want a more loose and loungey, casual look in their neckwear still wear cravats, and their cousins, the neckerchieves, today. The word ‘cravat’ came from the French  ‘cravate’, which was a corruption of the word ‘Croat’, from the country of…Croatia, where the cravat was born in the 1630s.

The original purpose of these neck-coverings and cloths (be they cravats, kerchiefs or ties), was actually to hold the shirtfront shut, and to stop wind and cold air from blowing down into your clothes and onto your chest…it was a comfort thing.

The Birth of the Tie

By the mid-1800s, the cravat, a staple of men’s wardrobes for the past two centuries, was beginning to get a bit raggedy around the edges. As with a lot of other elements of men’s clothing at the time, people started wanting simpler, better-fitting, less flamboyant clothing. The cravat was being seen as a relic of the Regency era of the 1810s and it was quickly becoming sooo last century.

So the modern necktie was born. While the cravat and the neckerchief never really went away, by the last quarter of the 1800s, they were beginning to do serious battle with the new kid on the block – the necktie.

The necktie was popular for a number of reasons.

– The cravat is generally tied loosely and floppily around the throat. This was fine…so long as you didn’t have to keep tightening it up all the time. In the increasingly mechanised world of the late 1800s, the loose, wavy cravat was a liability. If it unluckily unravelled over a piece of whirring machinery, it could strangle the wearer to death! The necktie was done up so that it provided a tighter, safer knot.

– The necktie was simpler and didn’t take up so much real-estate. Cravats are like icebergs – three quarters of the cloth is stuffed down your shirtfront. And cravats are big, bulky things – that leads to a lot of excess material. Neckties were slim and simple, without wasted fabric.

– The necktie was easier to put on. A cravat had a lot of fabric and tying one could be frustrating. A necktie was thinner and had less to fuss around with, making it faster and more convenient to tie.

Tie Knots

There’s a multitude of tie-knots out there. According to author Thomas Fink, who did a study of the necktie, there are no fewer than 85 ways to tie a necktie. Screw that! I’m only going to talk about two knots.

Not all shirts are the same and not all collars are the same. So you should always know at least two tie-knots. One of the most common knots is the Four-in-Hand.

Four-in-Hand Knot

The four-in-hand knot is probably the simplest knot ever. Supposedly, it was named after coachmen, who would tie up the reins of their carriage-horses in a similar way, to stop them from tangling up during long drives. If you’ve never tied a tie and you really need to know how, this is the fastest way:

1. The tie’s draped around the popped-up collar and over your shoulders, with the right side longer than the left (and with the wider side on the right).

2. The right side of the tie is crossed over the front of the left and then pulled behind it to the right.

3. Then the right side of the tie is crossed over the left side again.

4. Then, it’s pulled up through the gap below your neck.

5. Using your fingers, wriggle a hole through the last of the two loops that you made around the skinnier portion of the tie.

6. Stuff the wide end of the tie down through that new hole you wiggled open with your fingers. Pull it down so that it’s nice and tight.

7. Close the gap below your neck by pulling on the short end of the tie to draw the knot up.

Note: As this is the knot that generally uses the least amount of material, you might end up with a tie that hangs down too low. If it does, untie and do it again. Simply repeat step 3 two or three more times. This uses up the extra fabric so that you don’t have so much left over when the knot’s done up.

The four-in-hand knot is best used with shirts with spearpoint collars, that leave only a small space between the ends of the collar. This is because the knot that results from tying a tie in this fasion is rather long and skinny (unless you wrapped the tie around the knot a few more times to use up the extra fabric like I mentioned up above).

The Windsor Knots

The knots which are collectively called the Windsor knots, go by many names. But the general style was named after the dapper Duke of Windsor (who caused a scandal in 1936 when he abdicated the British throne). However, the knot itself was actually invented by his father (King George V), who had a reputation of being a strict dresscode adherent.

Windsor knots are also called Full Windsors, Double Windsors and Half-Windsors.

What the hell is the difference?

Full Windsor and Double Windsor are the same thing.

Half-Windsor is…a…half-Windsor.

So how do you tie one?

The Windsor-knot is famous, not only because of its royal connections, but because it’s a fat, chunky knot with a lot of symmetry. Here’s how you do one up.

1. Drape your tie over your shoulders and around your popped-up collar. Longer, wider side on the right, skinnier and shorter side on your left.

2. Cross the long side over the short side (left).

3. Loop the long side behind, and then up, through the gap below your neck, and outwards. Then, pull down. The front of the wider end of the tie should now be hanging down, on your left-hand side.

4. Cross the wide side of the tie back behind the knot again, but this time, pull it right across to the right side of your body.

5. Pull it up and stick it through the gap below your neck, keeping to the right side, this time. Pull it down. This is similar to step 3, only in reverse and on the other side of the knot. In this case, the BACK side of the wide end of the tie should be facing outwards.

6. Draw the wide end of the tie across the front of the knot to the left, and then poke it through the gap below your neck from behind, again (as in step 3).

7. Toss the wide end of the tie back over your left shoulder. Stick your finger down the front of the knot to make a hole there. Stuff the rest of the wide end of your tie down that hole and pull tight.

8. Pull the shorter, back end of the tie down to close the knot.

If you’ve done it right, then you should have a fat, triangular knot. Also, there should be a little dimple in your tie just below the knot – a distinctive trademark of a Windsor knot.

Alright. You’ve just done a Full or Double Windsor knot. Again, as with the four-in-hand knot, if you’ve left with too much fabric, undo the tie, readjust and tie again, but repeating steps 3 and 5 one or two more times to use up the extra fabric to make the finished length more correct.

So how do you do a Half-Windsor knot?

Easy. Just do half the steps. That’s why it’s called a Half-Windsor!

Do steps 1-3. Then instead of doing step 4 (bringing the tie around the back of the knot to the front to the right and stuffing it down the neck-gap again), simply bring it around the back, all the way around the front and to the back again (in a loop), then do steps 3, 7 and 8. Done.

The Four-in-Hand, the Full/Double and Half-Windsor knots are the most commonly-used tie-knots. The Windsor knots, because of their chunkier results, are best tied on shirts with spread collars, where a knot that takes up a lot of shirt real-estate is preferrable.

The Bowtie

Like the necktie, the bowtie is descendant from the granddaddy of all neck-cloths, the cravat. Okay. I won’t go into all that again.

Doing up a necktie is easy. Most boys learn how to do one up for school uniforms and the like. But a bowtie can be daunting and scary and intimidating!

It isn’t.

Bowties carry certain connotations – You’re a professor, banker, teacher, doctor, Hercule Poirot, or if you wear thick-rimmed glasses, have buck-teeth and wear a shortsleeved shirt – a nerd. But bowties can also carry a connotation of skill…mostly because they’re perceived as being impossible to tie.


Agatha Christie’s dandy Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot (portrayed by David Suchet), with his trademark bowtie

They’re not.

And this is how you do it.

I’ll be honest. There are a bazillion video-tutorials on YouTube that show you how to do up a bowtie. And you could disregard everything here that’s to come, and just go and watch one of those. But one reason why there’s so many of those videos is because they all show you how to tie a bowtie…but they don’t tell you. “You do this, then this, then this, then this, then this…voila!”

Yeah. Slow down. The video’s over in two minutes and you’re standing there with a piece of crap tied around your neck and your big fancy Black-Tie dinner is in half an hour. You’re screwed.

Tying a bowtie is easy – I got it after just three attempts. If a doofus like me can do it, anyone can. Here’s how:

1. Pop up your collar.

2. Adjust the length of your tie. Quality bowties have a cinch or an adjuster on them. Use this to get the length of the tie right.

How long does the tie have to be? Well, if it’s draped over your chest and around your neck, the left end of the tie should be at your nipple or at the top of your sternum. The right end should be about an inch or so longer than that. Adjust the tie’s length so that this is achieved (the short end of the tie is always on the left, the long side is on the right). Go ahead. I’ll wait…

3. Okay, done that? Now, to tie stuff up. Cross the long end of the tie over the short end (to the left). Stick the long end up behind the knot and pull up, firmly. The long end of the tie is now on your left shoulder and it should’ve looped around there from behind the left part of the tie. Yes? Good. Leave it there.

4. The other half of the tie is now pointing straight down. It should be shaped like a fish, with the tail pointing down and the head pointing up. Fold the tie in half across the middle of the head. Then twist this part of the tie to the left. You should have a nice, bowtie-looking shape under your chin if you’re looking in the mirror.

5. Keeping this position, flop the other part of the tie (on your shoulder) down over the middle of this bowtie shape.

6. Pinch the head and tail of the fishy bow which you created in step 4, together, and pull outwards. You’ll now have two holes. One between your neck and the tie itself, and one smaller one in front of that, just big enough for your finger to poke through.

7. The long half of your bowtie is now hanging down just like the other half was, with the fishtail pointing down and the head pointing up. Do as you did with the other half of the tie – Fold the head in half and twist it to the left.

8. Now for the tricky bit. Remember that little hole I mentioned at the end of step 6? You’re now gonna shove the folded head of your other fishy through that hole. I find it helps to fold the fish again, lengthwise, to fit it through here.

9. Done that? Now you should have:

Front bow – folded side on the left. Fishtail on the right.
Back bow – Folded side on the right. Fishtail on the left.

During this procedure, the middle of your bowtie knot might become a bit twisted. You can untwist it slightly to make it a little neater.

Now, to tighten and neaten.

Pull on the two fishheads to tighten the knot, and on the two tails to loosen the knot. Keeping pulling on the heads and the tails until symmetry and a comfortable tightness has been attained. Straighten out the fish-heads (especially the inner right one, which may have become a little crinkled in the exercise), and you’ve got a perfect bowtie!

Now you’re ready for that school formal or prom or that Black Tie family reunion or that fancy dress party which you’re attending as a Computer Nerd.

To undo the tie later, simply pull on the fishtails, and the whole thing just comes apart.

Note: Don’t worry if the tie isn’t absolutely super-duper crazy mega-perfect. No self-tied bowtie ever is. But you can try to get close.

 
by

“Ah Watson! The Needle!” – Sherlock Holmes and Drugs

“Which is it today? Morphine or cocaine?”
“It is cocaine. A seven-per-cent solution. Would you care to try it?”

– Dr. Watson speaking to Sherlock Holmes, ‘The Sign of Four’

Sherlock Holmes is famous for a lot of things. His deerstalker cap, his pipe, his address (“Two-twenty-one B…Baker Street”), his phenomenal deductive powers and of course…his drug-use. That’s what this posting is about.

The Holmesian Canon (the collection of short stories and the novels), was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was knighted in 1902 for services rendered during the Second Boer War (1899-1902). But before the Boer War, Doyle enjoyed the use of another title.

Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle.

That’s right. He was a physician.

He wrote the Holmes stories in the considerable amounts of spare time that he had between appointments and consultations, to make the extra money that his medical practice failed to provide.

It’s probably not surprising then, that medicine and drugs play a big role in the Canon, since after all, the stories were written by a doctor.

Sherlock Holmes and Drugs

The Holmesian canon gives us a window into the world of Victorian England, at the end of the 19th century. We see clothing, transport, social attitudes, science and technology. And we also get a glimpse into Victorian medicine. How many of the characters are doctors or surgeons? Dr. Mortimer, Dr. Watson, Dr. Trevelyan, Dr. Carthew…the list goes on.

But Holmes’s closest association with medicine (apart from Dr. Watson), is his use of drugs.

I will say this once. So pay close attention.

Sherlock Holmes was not a drug-addict.

He says so himself. Holmes’s brain is overactive. It is constantly whirring around looking for things to occupy itself with. When he’s working on a case, his brain is occupied with problems, facts, deductions, inferences and pieces of evidence.

When Holmes doesn’t have a case, his brain has nothing to work on. Nothing to stimulate it. He gets bored and cranky. Hence the drugs. They serve to keep his brain occupied and stimulated when he doesn’t have a case. He hops off them the moment that he does have one. At best, you might say that Holmes was a recreational drug-user. But certainly not an addict. If he was, he’d be huffing on opium and shooting up heroin all day long, even if he was on a case…which he has never done.

“…My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation…”

– Sherlock Holmes, ‘The Sign of Four’

Now, I will sit back while I’m broadsided by a group of angry people screaming at their computer-screens, saying how Holmes is a drug addict because he shot himself up with cocaine and morphine, how he did tobacco, how he huffed opium and did heroin and every other kind of illicit drug imaginable. Of course he was a druggie. Those are all illegal drugs!

…No they’re not.

Drugs in Victorian England

You have to understand that we read the Holmesian stories through modern eyes. Through the eyes of people living in the 21st Century. When these stories were written, some well over a hundred years ago, things were very different.

The most important difference, for the purposes of this posting, is that in Victorian times, opium, morphine, cocaine, laudanum and heroin were all completely legal.

Yes they were. Believe it, or not.

You could go into your Boots chemist in London on Fleet Street and buy a bottle of opium or morphine just as easily in 1885, as buying a bottle of aspirin pills is today. Nothing was thought of it and nothing was said. It was as easy as that. And 100% legal. Owning, using, purchasing and selling these drugs was as common as cough-drops. There was almost no regulation or laws surrounding these substances…mostly because at the time, their side-effects were less well-understood than they are today.

Opiates, especially (opiates are the drugs derived from the opium poppy), were used extensively in Victorian times, either as sedatives, sleeping drafts or painkillers. Sleeping-tablets contained opium or morphine. Sedatives (drugs to help you relax) most likely also contained opium or one of its related drugs.

The most common painkiller of the time was a powerful drug sold in bottles and which was used to treat everything from toothaches, headaches, joint-pains and back-ache. Called ‘Tincture of Laudanum’, this highly potent cocktail of alcohol and opium was powerful and effective…but also extremely addictive. And it was sold as freely in Victorian times as any other non-prescription pain-relief medication is sold today.

The Status of Drugs

In Victorian times, when the Holmesian canon was written, there was almost no regulation about drugs and poisons. The closest thing you had was the pharmacist’s ‘Poison Book’.

By law, pharmacists had to keep a record-book of poisons. Anyone wanting to purchase poison would have to fill out a line in the book. Their name, address, reason for purchasing poison and so-on…and sign their entry in the book. That was pretty much it.

But the drugs which, in the 21st century are illegal, had no regulation in Victorian times. Their side-effects were not understood and they were so widely used by everyone from doctors and surgeons to parents treating their sick children, that nobody thought anything of it.

It would not be until 1920, with the passing of the Dangerous Drugs Act, that drugs like cocaine and heroin would finally be outlawed in England.

Holmes’s Use of Drugs

At best, Holmes was a recreational drug-user. He shot himself up with morphine and cocaine to alleviate the agonising spells of boredom he had between the cases which were his real addiction. Opium is occasionally mentioned in the canon (most notably in ‘The Man with the Twisted Lip‘), and its famous side-effect of drowsiness (which is what made it so popular as a painkiller and sleeping-agent) was recorded therein, but no mention is made of Holmes ever actually taking the drug.

Whatever you might think of Holmes and the use of the drugs mentioned in the canon, you need to understand the historical context of the stories and the manner in which drugs were viewed at the time, and how they were used by Holmes, both very different from how they’re handled and used today.

 
by

“Ah Watson! The Needle!” – Sherlock Holmes and Drugs

“Which is it today? Morphine or cocaine?”
“It is cocaine. A seven-per-cent solution. Would you care to try it?”

– Dr. Watson speaking to Sherlock Holmes, ‘The Sign of Four’

Sherlock Holmes is famous for a lot of things. His deerstalker cap, his pipe, his address (“Two-twenty-one B…Baker Street”), his phenomenal deductive powers and of course…his drug-use. That’s what this posting is about.

The Holmesian Canon (the collection of short stories and the novels), was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was knighted in 1902 for services rendered during the Second Boer War (1899-1902). But before the Boer War, Doyle enjoyed the use of another title.

Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle.

That’s right. He was a physician.

He wrote the Holmes stories in the considerable amounts of spare time that he had between appointments and consultations, to make the extra money that his medical practice failed to provide.

It’s probably not surprising then, that medicine and drugs play a big role in the Canon, since after all, the stories were written by a doctor.

Sherlock Holmes and Drugs

The Holmesian canon gives us a window into the world of Victorian England, at the end of the 19th century. We see clothing, transport, social attitudes, science and technology. And we also get a glimpse into Victorian medicine. How many of the characters are doctors or surgeons? Dr. Mortimer, Dr. Watson, Dr. Trevelyan, Dr. Carthew…the list goes on.

But Holmes’s closest association with medicine (apart from Dr. Watson), is his use of drugs.

I will say this once. So pay close attention.

Sherlock Holmes was not a drug-addict.

He says so himself. Holmes’s brain is overactive. It is constantly whirring around looking for things to occupy itself with. When he’s working on a case, his brain is occupied with problems, facts, deductions, inferences and pieces of evidence.

When Holmes doesn’t have a case, his brain has nothing to work on. Nothing to stimulate it. He gets bored and cranky. Hence the drugs. They serve to keep his brain occupied and stimulated when he doesn’t have a case. He hops off them the moment that he does have one. At best, you might say that Holmes was a recreational drug-user. But certainly not an addict. If he was, he’d be huffing on opium and shooting up heroin all day long, even if he was on a case…which he has never done.

“…My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram, or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of existence. I crave for mental exaltation…”

– Sherlock Holmes, ‘The Sign of Four’

Now, I will sit back while I’m broadsided by a group of angry people screaming at their computer-screens, saying how Holmes is a drug addict because he shot himself up with cocaine and morphine, how he did tobacco, how he huffed opium and did heroin and every other kind of illicit drug imaginable. Of course he was a druggie. Those are all illegal drugs!

…No they’re not.

Drugs in Victorian England

You have to understand that we read the Holmesian stories through modern eyes. Through the eyes of people living in the 21st Century. When these stories were written, some well over a hundred years ago, things were very different.

The most important difference, for the purposes of this posting, is that in Victorian times, opium, morphine, cocaine, laudanum and heroin were all completely legal.

Yes they were. Believe it, or not.

You could go into your Boots chemist in London on Fleet Street and buy a bottle of opium or morphine just as easily in 1885, as buying a bottle of aspirin pills is today. Nothing was thought of it and nothing was said. It was as easy as that. And 100% legal. Owning, using, purchasing and selling these drugs was as common as cough-drops. There was almost no regulation or laws surrounding these substances…mostly because at the time, their side-effects were less well-understood than they are today.

Opiates, especially (opiates are the drugs derived from the opium poppy), were used extensively in Victorian times, either as sedatives, sleeping drafts or painkillers. Sleeping-tablets contained opium or morphine. Sedatives (drugs to help you relax) most likely also contained opium or one of its related drugs.

The most common painkiller of the time was a powerful drug sold in bottles and which was used to treat everything from toothaches, headaches, joint-pains and back-ache. Called ‘Tincture of Laudanum’, this highly potent cocktail of alcohol and opium was powerful and effective…but also extremely addictive. And it was sold as freely in Victorian times as any other non-prescription pain-relief medication is sold today.

The Status of Drugs

In Victorian times, when the Holmesian canon was written, there was almost no regulation about drugs and poisons. The closest thing you had was the pharmacist’s ‘Poison Book’.

By law, pharmacists had to keep a record-book of poisons. Anyone wanting to purchase poison would have to fill out a line in the book. Their name, address, reason for purchasing poison and so-on…and sign their entry in the book. That was pretty much it.

But the drugs which, in the 21st century are illegal, had no regulation in Victorian times. Their side-effects were not understood and they were so widely used by everyone from doctors and surgeons to parents treating their sick children, that nobody thought anything of it.

It would not be until 1920, with the passing of the Dangerous Drugs Act, that drugs like cocaine and heroin would finally be outlawed in England.

Holmes’s Use of Drugs

At best, Holmes was a recreational drug-user. He shot himself up with morphine and cocaine to alleviate the agonising spells of boredom he had between the cases which were his real addiction. Opium is occasionally mentioned in the canon (most notably in ‘The Man with the Twisted Lip‘), and its famous side-effect of drowsiness (which is what made it so popular as a painkiller and sleeping-agent) was recorded therein, but no mention is made of Holmes ever actually taking the drug.

Whatever you might think of Holmes and the use of the drugs mentioned in the canon, you need to understand the historical context of the stories and the manner in which drugs were viewed at the time, and how they were used by Holmes, both very different from how they’re handled and used today.