Professor George Challenger

Professor Challenger
The Lost World character
Professor Challenger (seated) as illustrated by Harry Rountree in Arthur Conan Doyle's novella The Poison Belt in The Strand Magazine
Created by	Arthur Conan Doyle
Information
Gender	Male
Nationality	British

George Edward Challenger, better known as Professor Challenger, is a fictional character in a series of fantasy and science fiction stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Unlike Conan Doyle's self-controlled, analytical character, Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger is an aggressive, hot-tempered, dominating figure.

Like Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger was based on a real person — in this case, a professor of physiology named William Rutherford, who had lectured at the University of Edinburgh while Conan Doyle studied medicine there.

George Edward Challenger, F.R.S., M.D., D.Sc., was born in Largs, Scotland, in 1863 and studied medicine and anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Challenger was appointed to an Assistant position at the British Museum in 1892 and was promoted within a year to Assistant Keeper in the Comparative Anthropology Department. He held a professorship in Zoology and was elected President of the Zoological Institute in London. Several of his inventions were successfully applied in industry and brought him additional income.

Edward Malone, the narrator of The Lost World, the novel in which Challenger first appeared, described his first meeting with the character:

Challenger was also a pretentious and self-righteous scientific jack-of-all-trades. Although considered by Malone's editor, Mr McArdle, to be "just a homicidal megalomaniac with a turn for science", his ingenuity could be counted upon to solve any problem or get out of any unsavoury situation, and be sure to offend and insult several other people in the process. Challenger was, in many ways, rude, crude, and without social conscience or inhibition. Yet he was a man capable of great loyalty and his love of his wife was all-encompassing.

Challenger married Jessica ‘Jessie’ and the couple settled at 14 Enmore Gardens, Enmore Park, Kensington, London. After his adventures in South America Challenger and his wife purchased The Briars, in Rotherfield, Sussex, as a second home. Later, following his wife’s death from influenza, Challenger sold his London home and rented an apartment on the third floor in Victoria West Gardens. London. Challenger’s friend and biographer, the journalist Edward ‘Ted’ Dunn Malone married Enid Challenger, the Professor’s daughter, in the summer of 1927. Malone had been born in Ireland and achieved some fame in rugby football at international level for Ireland before a career in journalism at the Daily Gazette. Enid Challenger was a freelance reporter at the same newspaper..