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SHERLOCK HOLMES was born in Chesterfield.

As sensational statements go this one could win a pub argument at a stroke. Categorically, without dispute, full documentation available - Sherlock Holmes was born in Chesterfield.

So what's the catch? Perhaps it would be fairer to say that 'a' Sherlock Holmes was born in Chesterfield. The happy event occurred in 1906, illustrating that the modern trend for naming offspring after celebrities is nothing new.

The fictional Sherlock Holmes, played by Basil Rathbone on screen

The 'real' Sherlock Holmes - the world's greatest consulting detective created in fiction by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - made his debut in print in 1887. By 1894 a Mr. and Mrs. Holmes from Nottingham had become sufficiently smitten with the character to become the first proud parents to give their son the name Sherlock, although only as a middle name for their bouncing baby boy Harry Sherlock Holmes.

Others followed suit in dribs and drabs until Mr. and Mrs. Holmes from Wakefield became the first to go all the way - in 1897 their son Sherlock Holmes entered the world. Another followed suit in Sheffield in 1904, and the third Sherlock Holmes was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, in 1906.

This curious revelation is given courtesy of the online census records for England. It is fair to assume that Derbyshire's own Sherlock Holmes, unless he has lived to be over a hundred years old, is no longer in our midst.

Did anyone know Sherlock Holmes? If you are able to help with our enquiries please post your observations here, no matter how elementary.

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County:  Derbyshire

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