The Baker Street Irregulars (as a group of informants)

Lore & Background

Sherlock Holmes recognized their unique ability to navigate the city unnoticed and organized them into a reliable intelligence network. The group is most famously associated with Wiggins, who acts as the chief coordinator for the younger members. Through him, Holmes assigns tasks ranging from tailing suspects to monitoring specific addresses. Holmes pays them each a shilling a day, and in The Sign of the Four he offers a guinea as a prize to the one who finds the steam launch he is after. Their existence underscores the limitations of Scotland Yard during this period.

Reader's Guide

Their leader, Wiggins, reports to Holmes on the group's behalf. Holmes pays them a shilling a day each, and in The Sign of the Four offers a guinea prize to whoever finds the steam launch he is looking for. According to Holmes they can "go everywhere and hear everything". After the whole group upset his landlady by coming into 221B Baker Street together, Holmes told them that in future only Wiggins should report to him.

Did You Know?

• Two members are named in the stories: the leader Wiggins, and Simpson, who watches Henry Wood in "The Adventure of the Crooked Man".
• The fictional group is distinct from the real-life literary society founded in 1934.