"You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive" -- Holmes (STUD).

Dear Dr. Watson was a well-traveled Victorian gentleman due in great part to his military service and his later association with Sherlock Holmes. He wooed woman "over many nations and three separate continents" (SIGN) (namely Europe, Asia and probably Australia (although this point is debated because of his unfamiliarity with the idiomatic "cooee" of BOSC). His travel to Australia is established in SIGN when Watson says he has been to Ballarat, Australia.

His travels to Asia included his war service in Afghanistan and his short tenure in Bombay.

Watson's very first introduction to the reader is upon his return from his service in Afghanistan during the Second Anglo-Afghan War (or Second Afghan War). In 1878, Afghanistan was a buffer zone between Russia and British-controlled India. That year, Russia sent an uninvited diplomatic mission to Kabul. Although Afghan authorities tried to keep out the Russians, they failed. The British, not to be outdone by the Russians, demanded their own mission and sent one out. The British mission was turned back at the eastern entrance of the Khyber Pass and the Second Anglo-Afghan War was on.

Following are Watson's recollections concerning his military service:

I was duly attached to the 5th Northumberland Fusiliers as assistant surgeon. The regiment was stationed in India at the time, and before I could join it, the 2nd Afghan war had broken out. On landing at Bombay, I learned that my corps had advanced through the passes, and was already deep in the enemy's country. I followed, however, with many other officers who were in the same situation as myself, and succeeded in reaching Kandahar in safety, where I found my regiment, and at once entered upon my new duties . . . . I was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery (STUD).

The large and bloody Battle of Maiwand ended in defeat for the British Army and many dead bodies for both sides, including a body count of over 7,000 Afghanis and 1,123 British and Indian soldiers.

Fifty miles from Kandahar, the Berkshires (including Watson) encountered a large Afghan army. The overwhelming Afghan numbers and artillery almost wiped out the inexperienced Berkshires.

The battle of Maiwand was researched by Rudyard Kipling and enshrined a poem he wrote called "That Day." It's full text can be accessed at EveryPoet.

The war ended where it began - with Afghanistan as a neutral buffer state between India and Russia.

Watson had a Jezail Bullet "which I had brought back in one of my limbs" (NOBL). And later, Holmes says "Your hand stole toward your old wound" (CARD). As Watson himself said (see above), it was in his shoulder. Further, Holmes says that Watson held his injured left arm was held "in a stiff and unnatural manner" (STUD). But the question of Watson's wound continues to be one of debate because in (SIGN), Watson claims the wound was actually in his tendo achillis. He says, "[I] sat nursing my wounded leg. I had had a Jezail bullet through it some time before, and, though it did not prevent me from walking, it ached wearily at every change of the weather." Unless it was a magic bullet (or two separate Jezail Bullets) and his statement that it was in only "one" of his limbs, this is a debate that is unlikely to ever be solved. However, by pure amount of times he mentions it in separate cases, the left shoulder/arm appears to win out. Why, other than pure sympathy, however, would he wish to mislead the reader as to where the Jezail bullet was found? A Jezail bullet, FYI, is not a specific type of bullet but rather any bullet fired by a Jezail rifle, the local Afghan name for a light, accurate, long barreled, slender-stocked rifle in and around the mountains of Afghanistan. It has a deep set stylized stock, usually with percussion lock (see photo at left); and it is sometimes equipped with a folding bipod.

1850 Jezail Afghan Percussion Rifle

Besides traveling all over the British countryside as Holmes' chronicler, Watson also accompanied Holmes throughout the continent in FINA.

The trip included many destinations. Among them: Brussels, Belgium Strasburg, France Luxembourg Basle, Switzerland Geneva, Switzerland Leuk, Switzerland Interlaken, Switzerland Meiringen, Switzerland

Map of Holmes & Watson's flight from London to the Reichenbach Falls

"For a charming week we wandered up the Valley of the Rhone, and then, branching off at Leuk, we made our way over the Gemmi Pass, still deep in snow, and so, by way of Interlaken, to Meiringen. It was a lovely trip, the dainty green of the spring below, the virgin white of the winter above . . . .Once, I remember, as we passed over the Gemmi, and walked along the border of the melancholy Daubensee, a large rock which had been dislodged from the ridge upon our right clattered down and roared into the lake behind us . . . . It was upon the 3rd of May that we reached the little village of Meiringen, where we put up at the Englischer Hof, then kept by Peter Steiler the elder" (FINA).

Reichenbach Falls

On their way to Rosenlaui, they detoured to see the fateful Reichenbach Falls, which drop 250 meters (656 feet). Like the "Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes," that is where we shall end.

Information on the Second Anglo-Afghan War compiled from Wikipedia.org. Information on the Jezail rifle and bullet comes from the Kentucky Rifle.