Inspector Lestrade
Detective Inspector G. Lestrade is a fictional character appearing in the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. Lestrade's first appearance was in the first Sherlock Holmes story, the 1887 novel A Study in Scarlet. His last appearance is in the 1924 short story "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs", which is included in the collection The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
Lestrade is a determined but conventional Scotland Yard detective who consults Holmes on many cases, and is the most prominent police character in the series. Lestrade has been played by many actors in adaptations based on the Sherlock Holmes stories in film, television, and other media.
Appearances in canon
| Case | Date of publication | Location |
| A Study in Scarlet | 1887 | London |
| "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" | 1891 | Herefordshire |
| "The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor" | 1892 | London |
| "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box" | 1893 | Croydon |
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | 1901 | Devon |
| "The Adventure of the Empty House" | 1903 | London |
| "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder" | 1903 | South Norwood |
| "The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton" | 1904 | Hampstead, London |
| "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons" | 1904 | London |
| "The Adventure of the Second Stain" | 1904 | London |
| "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" | 1908 | Woolwich |
| "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax" | 1911 | Lausanne |
| "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs" | 1924 | Edgware Road, London |
Lestrade is also mentioned in the novel The Sign of the Four, though he doesn't appear in it.
Fictional character biography
History and personality
Lestrade mentions his "twenty years' experience" in the police force in A Study in Scarlet. In the story, Holmes says Lestrade is "a well-known detective". It is observed by Holmes that Lestrade and another detective, Tobias Gregson, have an ongoing rivalry, and he identifies the two as "the pick of a bad lot. They are both quick and energetic, but conventional - shockingly so." Holmes regularly allows members of the police to take the credit for his deductions, including Lestrade in cases such as those in "The Adventure of the Empty House" and "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder". Lestrade is able to write in shorthand.Lestrade is initially doubtful about Holmes's methods, and he suggests that Holmes is "too much inclined to be cocksure" in "The Adventure of the Norwood Builder". He is "indifferent and contemptuous" of Holmes's exploration in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery". Holmes is openly rude about Lestrade at times, such as in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" when he tells Lestrade "demurely" that he is unskilled at handling facts, and refers to Lestrade as an imbecile. In The Sign of the Four, Holmes says that being out of his depth is Lestrade's normal state. However, Holmes is generally more positive about Lestrade in later stories. In "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box", Holmes remarks that Lestrade's tenacity "has brought him to the top at Scotland Yard". In The Hound of the Baskervilles, he says that Lestrade is "the best of the professionals", and in the same story, Watson observes "from the reverential way in which Lestrade gazed at my companion that he had learned a good deal since the days when they had first worked together."
By the time of the story "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons", Lestrade is a regular evening visitor at 221B Baker Street, and "his visits were welcome to Sherlock Holmes" according to Watson. In the same story, Lestrade reveals the high regard in which Holmes is now held by Scotland Yard: "We're not jealous of you at Scotland Yard. No, sir, we are very proud of you, and if you come down to-morrow, there's not a man, from the oldest inspector to the youngest constable, who wouldn't be glad to shake you by the hand". Holmes thanks Lestrade for this comment, and Watson notes that this is one of the few instances when Holmes is visibly moved. In "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax", Holmes refers to him as "friend Lestrade". Lestrade's involvement in the investigation in "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans" suggests he has become one of Scotland Yard's most trusted detectives.
He was described by H. Paul Jeffers in the following words:
He is the most famous detective ever to walk the corridors of Scotland Yard, yet he existed only in the fertile imagination of a writer. He was Inspector Lestrade. We do not know his first name, only his initial: G. Although he appears thirteen times in the immortal adventures of Sherlock Holmes, nothing is known of the life outside the Yard of the detective whom Dr. Watson described unflatteringly as sallow, rat-faced, and dark-eyed and whom Holmes saw as quick and energetic but wholly conventional, lacking in imagination, and normally out of his depth - the best of a bad lot who had reached the top in the CID by bulldog tenacity.
Appearance and age
Inspector Lestrade is described as "a little sallow rat-faced, dark-eyed fellow" in A Study in Scarlet. In "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", Watson describes Lestrade as "a lean, ferret-like man, furtive and sly-looking", and also says, "In spite of the light brown dustcoat and leather-leggings which he wore in deference to his rustic surroundings, I had no difficulty in recognising Lestrade, of Scotland Yard." Watson states that Lestrade is "as wiry, as dapper, and as ferret-like as ever" in "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box". He is described as "a small, wiry bulldog of a man" in The Hound of the Baskervilles, and there is a description of him as having "bulldog features" in "The Adventure of the Second Stain". According to Holmes in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery", Lestrade's tracks can be identified due to the "inward twist" of his left foot.His age is not given in the stories. Lestrade works with Holmes as early as A Study in Scarlet and continues to do so as late as "The Adventure of the Three Garridebs". According to Klinger, L. S. Holstein used this information to conclude that Lestrade is ten to twelve years older than Holmes. Klinger estimated that Holmes was born in 1854; together with Holstein's theory, this would suggest that Lestrade may have been born between 1842 and 1844.
Name origins and pronunciation
Doyle seems to have acquired Lestrade's name from a fellow student at the University of Edinburgh, Joseph Alexandre Lestrade, who was a Saint Lucian medical student. In "The Adventure of the Cardboard Box", Lestrade's first initial is revealed to be G. This initial may have been inspired by the Prefect of Police known only as "G—" in Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Purloined Letter". Despite having an apparently French surname, Inspector Lestrade shows no overt French ties.According to Everyman's English Pronouncing Dictionary, the name Lestrade can be pronounced either "Le'strayed" or "Le'strahd" . In The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, Leslie S. Klinger writes that there is no consensus among scholars on the pronunciation of "Lestrade". The original French pronunciation of the name would have been close to "Le'strahd". However, according to the book The Sherlock Holmes Miscellany by Roger Johnson and Jean Upton, Arthur Conan Doyle's daughter Dame Jean Conan Doyle stated that her father pronounced the name with a long a sound.
The pronunciation of Lestrade as "Le'strahd" has been used in multiple adaptations such as the 1939–1946 film series, the 2009 film Sherlock Holmes, and the television series Sherlock. The pronunciation of the name as "Le'strayed" has also been used in multiple canonical adaptations, including the 1931–1937 film series, the Granada television series, and the BBC radio series, as well as in some non-canonical works, including the 2020 film Enola Holmes.
Depiction in derivatives and adaptations
Film
- Arthur Bell played Lestrade in several short films released in 1921 as part of the Stoll film series. Tom Beaumont played Lestrade in a 1923 short film in the series.
- Philip Hewland played Lestrade in The Sleeping Cardinal and The Missing Rembrandt.
- Alan Mowbray played Lestrade in A Study in Scarlet.
- Charles Mortimer played Lestrade in The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes.
- Lestrade was played by John Turnball in Silver Blaze.
- Dennis Hoey played Lestrade in six of the Sherlock Holmes films in the 1939–1946 series from Universal Pictures starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes. This version had the Yard man as a well-meaning fool patronised by the detective, whose help he greatly appreciated, rather in the manner of that series' version of Doctor Watson. Lestrade is nonetheless a capable officer, and Holmes never questions his honesty or his willingness to solve a case.
- Frank Finlay played him twice, in A Study in Terror and Murder by Decree, both focusing on non-canon stories with Holmes investigating the Jack the Ripper murders.
- Ronald Lacey played Lestrade in the 1983 film The Hound of the Baskervilles, starring Ian Richardson as Holmes.
- Roger Ashton-Griffiths played Lestrade in Young Sherlock Holmes ; his taking credit for solving the mystery earns him a promotion from Detective to Inspector.
- Jeffrey Jones played Lestrade in Without a Clue.
- Eddie Marsan plays him in Guy Ritchie's Warner Bros. adaptation Sherlock Holmes, alongside Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law. This incarnation of Lestrade expresses a high level of irritation for Holmes, who in turn regards him with affectionate mockery. Lestrade nevertheless depends on Holmes, calling him to crime scenes and even allowing a fugitive Holmes to escape police custody. He briefly reprised the role in the 2011 sequel Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
- Adeel Akhtar plays him in the 2020 Netflix film Enola Holmes and its 2022 sequel.