BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / John Watson: A Definite, Canon Age?

**Posted by BreathingIsBoring** August 29, 2014 1:45 am

So I decided to do a bit of my own deductive work, in case I were to need it in a fic in the future. Trishkafibble on Ao3 made a transcript-type work of John Watson's CV, and that includes the dates of his education.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/503732

Since I'm American, I'm not quite sure if my research into the British schooling system is correct. However, if I'm right, then most kids finish 6th Form at the age of 18. Therefore, unless he was a year or two older, John Watson would have been 18 or 19 by 10 June 1999. Add on 11 years to the presumed year of 2010 for when Sherlock begins, and John would have started out the show at the age of 29-30. Going by that, he would be 30-32 by TRF, 32-34 by TEH, and 33-35 by HLV.

So, really, he's a bit younger than we assume he is, going by Martin's age.

Wellingtongoose on Tumblr does a good job explaining the mistakes and strange dates given across his CV. You can find that here: http://wellingtongoose.tumblr.com/post/56726002080/explaining-john-watsons-cv

Now, this all depends on whether or not you consider that packet canon-conforming or just a prop; however, I like having a definite number, so I'm going to go with this one and blame the age-appearance on the fact that Martin is about eight years older than his character.

Opinions?

Last edited by BreathingIsBoring (August 29, 2014 1:46 am)

**Posted by Schmiezi** August 29, 2014 4:29 am

I cannot contribute anything to the discussion of John's age, but thank you so much for the link. This page is exactly what I have been looking for for ages.

**Posted by Liberty** August 29, 2014 7:20 am

There are a few things that don't seem right about the CV.

Yes, you're correct that he would normally finish school at 18, if he'd stayed on to do A levels (school leaving age was 16 until recently). I don't understand his school qualifications, though. I don't think there were A*s for A levels (the qualifications people would sit at aournd 18).   And normally, they would be on the CV as A levels, not GCSEs. If they are GCSEs, he'd have sat them at around 16, and six wouldn't be very many.

Usually intercalated degrees as an extra year during the medicine course and I haven't seen them being done the way John did them (2 years before the medicine course).   But maybe that's how they were done at Kings a few years ago?

He misses out a year when he would have been a House Officer. Then is only an SHO for 2 months? And then no further employment history?

GP training is completely missed out. (And he definitely works as GP, so he must have done it at some point).

The army is completely missed out.

The skills and proficiencies list is odd.   For instance, a GP would get somebody having a myocardial infarction to hospital, not treat them in the surgery.

But age-wise, I think it must be wrong. He has only about 3 years (2006 to 2009 when his blog starts) to fit in the missing pieces like the GP training, army, Afghanistan.   It isn't enough time. I think he has to be older.

**Posted by blue123** October 9, 2014 12:19 pm

Interesting. I did notice the Irish accent & also the fact that both Jim & Janine are slightly demented. But I don't think she is related to Jim. I also don't think it's the last that we've seen her.