Arthur Conan Doyle
wrote a short pamphlet titled, The War in South Africa: Its Cause and Conduct, which
justified the UK's role in the Boer war, and was widely translated.
Conan Doyle believed that it was this pamphlet that resulted in 1902 in his being
knighted and appointed Deputy-Lieutenant of Surrey. He also in 1900 wrote the longer
book, The Great Boer War. During the early years of the 20th century, Sir Arthur twice
ran for Parliament as a Liberal Unionist, once in Edinburgh and once in the Hawick
Burghs, but although he received a respectable vote he was not elected.
Arthur Conan Doyle statue in Crowborough.
Conan Doyle was involved in the campaign for the reform of the Congo Free State, led
by the journalist E. D. Morel and the diplomat Roger Casement. He wrote The Crime of
the Congo in 1909, a long pamphlet in which he denounced the horrors in that country.
He became acquainted with Morel and Casement, taking inspiration from them for two of