Reply to Sherlock Holmes: is he upper or middle class?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you really must know then the answer is upper middle class with ancestry in the minor gentry. Much of the professional upper middle classes (barristers, clergy, army officers, senior civil service, certain types of doctors) were effectively younger sons and grandsons of the gentry. They carried themselves similarly as the gentry did, they attended the same schools, went to Oxford or Cambridge, held the same values, belonged to the same clubs, had the ancestry, but were a bit of a notch down due to not being landowners themselves. They, as a group, were somewhat different from the other half of the upper middle classes whose incomes came from trade and manufacturing.

His brother, Mycroft, is a very senior government civil service official. Another typical role for this group.

It was also normal for many of this class to live off of private incomes, the interest of capital invested in the markets. Being a gentleman of leisure was desirable. Or private incomes supplemented what incomes they earned if worked.

John Watson was more middle class than Holmes because he did not have wealth nor gentry ancestry but by American standards he'd have also be upper middle class.

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I don't think that we get much information about Watson's ancestry.  It's established that his father and older brother are dead, and the scene where Holmes analyzes his watch reveals that Watson's father started out with "good prospects" (meaning money and probably education), but squandered them (he was apparently an alcoholic).  Watson appears to be pretty solidly MC by the standards of the time, but from a family that has come down in the world--hence the practical education and enlistment in the Army.  Holmes is a step above, since he comes from the landed gentry, received a gentleman's education, and appears to have at least some private income (if not enough to allow him to live in particularly high style).  [/quote]

The biggest clues to his origins are that he was an army surgeon, which was a solidly middle class occupation, it was not a fashionable occupation. The other big clue is that he never mentions any sort of gentry or impressive heritage. It all suggests a family with roots in trade or maybe even farming stock. A moderately successful shopkeeper as a grandfather who was able to send his son to a good school, and who in turn studied medicine or was a solicitor or a senior clerk, and in turn gave his son (John) an education and medical training. The respectable middle classes.

Class in Britain was based in things other than your monetary position. No matter how poor Holmes might have been at points in his life he would always been seen as part of the upper middle classes. Same with Watson with the middle classes, no matter how much money he might later have. [/quote]

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