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THE ORIGINAL

The original irregulars were a group of Fictional Character s featured in the Sherlock Holmes stories. They were a group of street urchins who helped Holmes out from time to time. The head of the group was called Wiggins . Holmes paid them a Shilling a day (plus expenses), with a Guinea prize (worth one Pound and one shilling) for a vital clue.


SPECIAL OPERATIONS EXECUTIVE

The Special Operations Executive (SOE), tasked by Winston Churchill to
''"set Europe ablaze"'' during World War II , had their headquarters at 64 Baker Street and were often called "the Baker Street Irregulars" after Sherlock Holmes's fictional group of spies.


THE MODERN ORGANIZATION

The Baker Street Irregulars are also an organization of Sherlock Holmes enthusiasts founded in 1934 by Christopher Morley . Members have included Franklin Delano Roosevelt , Harry S. Truman , Rex Stout and Isaac Asimov . They continue to convene every January in New York City for an annual dinner, which forms part of a weekend of celebration and study involving other Sherlockian groups and individuals as well. The present leader of it is Michael Whelan of Indianapolis, Indiana .

The BSI, as it calls itself, is considered the preeminent Sherlockian group in the United States. There are also "scion societies" approved by the BSI in dozens of local communities. Most scion societies welcome new members, but the BSI does not accept applications for membership -- instead, membership and the awarding of an "Irregular Shilling" comes as an honor to those who have made a name for themselves in local groups or in Sherlockian publications. The BSI has published ''The Baker Street Journal'', an "irregular quarterly of Sherlockiana", since 1946.


INFLUENCE ON OTHER POPULAR CULTURE

  • Dorothy L. Sayers 's fictional sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey employs a similar organization in the 1920s and 1930s known as the " Cattery " a secretarial agency that sends women on undercover assignments. Like Holmes, Wimsey makes use of a class of persons who can go anywhere without being suspected - in the case of post- World War I Britain, unmarried or widowed women between the ages of 20 and 60.



  • A 21 year-old Sherlock Holmes is inspired to form the Baker Street Irregulars during an incident found in ''Enter the Lion: a Posthumous Memoir of Mycroft Holmes,'' a manuscript "edited" by Michael P. Hodel and Sean M. Wright (1979).


  • The irregulars appear in the animated series '' Sherlock Holmes In The 22nd Century '', though these are teenagers, and presumably older than the ones of the Doyle canon. As in the stories, the unofficial leader is named Wiggins, an aspiring pugilist and soccer player. Holmes practically deduces his entire life story simply by noting his walk and the stains on his clothes during their first meeting. A self-styled cockney girl and a computer nerd paraplegic form the other members of the group.


  • The irregulars also appear as the main characters in ''Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars: The Fall of the Amazing Zalindas,'' a 2006 novel by Tracy Mack and Michael Citrin. Wiggins is again the leader of a gang of street urchins. Other major characters include Ozzie, a scrivener's apprentice; Rohan, an Indian boy; Elliot, from an Irish tailor's family; Pilar, a Gypsy girl; and little Alfie. The Irregulars help solve the mysterious deaths of three tightrope walkers at a circus.



  • The Baker Street Irregulars is also the name of an English band from Preston who take their name from Holmes' street urchins.


  • In Justin Richards ' Invisible Detective books, Art, Jonny, Meg and Flinch act as the Baker Street irregulars to private detective Brandon Lake, whom they made up to use as a cover for their own crime fighting egos, since nobody's going to trust four kids to solve mysteries.



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