Colonel Sebastian Moran

Lore & Background

Holmes looks Moran up in his index of criminal biographies. Born in London in 1840, the son of Sir Augustus Moran, he went to Eton and Oxford before an army career with the 1st Bangalore Pioneers, serving in the Jowaki Expedition and the Second Anglo-Afghan War. A devoted sportsman, he wrote Heavy Game of the Western Himalayas and Three Months in the Jungle. After turning to crime he was obliged to retire from the army and return to London, where he kept an address in Conduit Street and belonged to several clubs. Moriarty came to use him only for assassinations that needed his peculiar skill with the rifle.

Reader's Guide

In "The Final Problem" Moran escaped incrimination and followed the Professor to the Reichenbach Falls, where he tried to kill Holmes by rolling boulders down on him. Afterwards he made a living in London by playing cards at several clubs. When Ronald Adair noticed that he won by cheating and threatened to expose him, Moran murdered Adair with a silenced air rifle that fired revolver bullets. He then tried to shoot Holmes from a vacant house opposite the detective's rooms, but Holmes had expected it: Moran shot a wax effigy while Holmes, Watson and Inspector Lestrade hid nearby and seized him. In "The Adventure of the Illustrious Client" Holmes mentions Moran as still alive in September 1902.

Did You Know?

• After the Reichenbach Falls, only the few surviving free members of Moriarty's organisation and Holmes's brother Mycroft knew that Holmes was still alive.
• He was seized in a vacant house opposite Holmes's residence, where Holmes, Watson and Inspector Lestrade had been hiding.