Ideas and theories come out of seemingly nowhere, especially when you’re in a group of people. Ideas that start as rational debates can suddenly make that hard left into either wild imaginations or “Things that make you go Hmmm”. Nowhere else is this perfectly represented than when you have a group of Sherlockians gathered together discussing one of the stories.
Picture this, it’s the first meeting of 2023, a group of Sherlockians are gathered discussing if the acts leading up to World War I were coincidence or a conspiracy to keep the people who could’ve stopped the war away from actually voting.
Actually, we were discussing "His Last Bow."
The story is a simple one, possibly one of the shortest as well as everything seems to happen in rather quick succession. The story opens with Van Bork speaking to Baron Von Herling about getting important information about the British military and government secrets. Both men are about to leave back to Germany the next day as soon as Von Bork receives the final information regarding Naval signals from his informant, Altamont. The story ends with the mission blowing up in Von Bork’s face as Altamont is revealed to be Sherlock Holmes and he and Dr. Watson return the German spy to Scotland Yard and circumvent what could have been a potentially disastrous blow to England at the beginning of World War 1.
But Altamont, or rather Sherlock Holmes, was running all over the country gathering potentially false data for Von Bork, so how did he know everything that was happening in that small cottage? He couldn’t have been there for the necessary spying on the German. Instead he left that in the very capable hands of Von Bork’s housekeeper, Martha.
This is where the fun begins. One theory is that Martha is, in fact Mrs. Hudson, Holmes’ housekeeper. We have the BBC and CBS/Paramount to thank for this. Because of these shows, Martha is the commonly assumed to be Mrs. Husdon’s Christian name. Also, we see housekeeper and Holmes together and just assume that Martha is the same person.
While Mrs. Hudson’s name could be Martha, I would agree that the Martha who was working for Von Bork and Mrs. Hudson are not the same women. The argument for this is simple: Martha is actually a spy for the Home Office sent by Mycroft Holmes.
There’s an entirely different argument that can be made regarding the eldest Holmes brother and even if he was part of the Home Office during the start of WW1 that I won’t get into now. The assumption is that yes, Holmes is there and yes, has planned for this event as Sherlock Holmes casually states in a throwaway line to Watson, “Strong pressure was brought upon me to look into the matter” (LAST). While this could be talking about the British Premier or the Prime Minister as Holmes mentions, there is an argument to be made that Mycroft himself tasked Sherlock with this mission, to spend two years creating an alias and working to stop the Germans from obtaining British secrets.
Back to Martha. She’s described as a “dear old ruddy-faced woman” and “the personification of Britannia”. Yet this dear old woman was instrumental in keeping Holmes up to date with the happenings of Von Bork, signaling when he was alone, getting names and addresses of Von Bork’s correspondences, and generally spying on the man all while keeping his house. We know that Martha was a part of his household earlier, helping when his wife and children were also in residence. She remained after everyone else but Von Bork had left, the only housekeeper in his residence.
Why a spy and not someone Holmes’ just paid off, much like his Irregulars? Holmes answers this himself. “You can report to me tomorrow in London, Martha, at Claridge’s Hotel.” Martha is to make a full report to Holmes the next day, in London. While Holmes’ Irregulars are usually mentioned to be kids or young teens, Martha is older. Which means she’s on a payroll somewhere and if Sherlock is working for His Majesty then it stands to reason Martha is as well. Given Sherlock’s love of disguises and the fact that he spent two years traveling from America to England, butchering the King’s English, and cementing his role as an American Irishman who had no love for England, it stands to reason that Martha was not the ruddy-faced old woman she portrays to Von Bork. Instead, she’s part of a spy network. Holmes even mentions to Watson that “I got her the situation here when I first took the matter up” (LAST) meaning she probably came down with him on orders to act as a spy for the last two years. While Holmes was traveling around England and America, Martha was working as a housekeeper, ingratiating herself with the family and becoming indispensable. All according to plan. And as Holmes is a master at the art of disguises, it stands to reason that Martha is as well.
In World War II, women such as Virginia Hall and Noor Inayat Khan were being used as spies for the British Empire, it’s logical that Mycroft Holmes would begin using women as spies long before that. Who would suspect the housekeeper who is “Britannia personified” to be working as a spy for England? This mindset put Martha in the perfect place to serve her country.
