9. His Fondness For Pies Prevented Him From Enlisting As A Solider In The Boer War
Conan Doyle attempted to enlist in the British Army for the Boer War (1899-1902) - but due to his large size, brought about primarily due to his love of food, he was deemed to be too overweight to serve as a soldier. Interestingly, Conan Doyle had already served as a doctor on the Greenland whaler Hope of Peterhead in 1880 and latterly as a ship's surgeon on the SS Mayumba during a voyage to the West African coast.