Sidney Edward Paget () (4 October 1860 – 28 January 1908) was a British artist of the Victorian era, best known for his illustrations that accompanied Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories in The Strand Magazine. Life Sidney Paget was the fifth of nine children born to Robert Paget, the vestry clerk of St. James and St. John in Clerkenwell, and Martha Paget (née Clarke), a music professor. In 1881 Paget entered the Royal Academy Schools. Here he befriended Alfred Morris Butler, an architecture student who may have become the model for Paget's illustrations of Dr. John Watson. Between 1879 and 1905 Paget contributed eighteen paintings, including nine portraits, to the Royal Academy exhibitions. Paget's drawings appeared in the Strand Magazine, the Pictorial World, The Sphere, The Graphic, The Illustrated London News, and The Pall Mall Magazine, and his work became well known in both the United Kingdom and United States. He provided illustrations for Arthur Morrison's Martin Hewitt detective stories and Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes work, doing much to popularise both series. On 1 June 1893, Sidney Paget married Edith Hounsfield (born 1865), daughter of William Hounsfield, a farmer. They had four daughters and two sons together: Leslie Robert (1894); Winifred (1896); Edith Muriel (1897); Evelyn Mereoah (1899); Beryl May (1902) and John L. Paget. Sidney Paget died in Margate on 28 January 1908, at age 47, after suffering from a painful chest complaint for the last few years of his life. According to his death certificate, the cause of death was "Mediastinal tumour, 3 years, exhaustion". Mediastinal tumours are growths that form in the central chest; as they grow, they increasingly constrict the lungs. The condition is rare, with unknown causes, and in the early twentieth century led to a painful and certain death. Paget was buried in East Finchley Cemetery. Two brothers, H.M. (Henry Marriott) Paget (1856–1936) and Wal (Walter Stanley) Paget (1863–1935) were also successful portraitists and illustrators. The Strand illustrations Paget is best remembered as the creator of the popular image of Sherlock Holmes from the original publication of Conan Doyle's stories in The Strand Magazine. He was originally hired to illustrate The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a series of twelve short stories that ran from July 1891 through June 1892. In 1893, Paget illustrated The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, published in The Strand as further episodes of the Adventures. When Sir Arthur Conan