A plain English merchant who comes to Holmes as a client in The Red-Headed League mystery. He runs a small and not very profitable pawnshop in Coburg Square. He has bright flaming red hair and has formerly been a mason and worked as a ship's carpenter. He is a simple, naive man who is not particularly intelligent or shrewd. The mystery begins when he accepts Vincent Spaulding (actually the thief John Clay) to work in his shop for half wages. He applies to join the strange Red-Headed League suggested by Spaulding and is accepted simply due to his hair color. For eight weeks, he is confined to an office copying the Britannica Encyclopedia for a high salary, but when the office suddenly closes, he seeks Holmes's help. It is only through Holmes's resolution that he realizes the underlying event was a massive robbery attempt.
In his earlier days, he worked as a ship's carpenter in China, where he acquired a tattoo and specific joint ailments. He retired and opened a shop in London.
Rotund and possessing a physical structure that displays pompousness. He wears a loose, unclean, unbuttoned black coat and baggy gray trousers. His most striking feature is his hair, which is a vivid, flaming, and exceptionally bright shade of red.
Sherlock Holmes
The detective whose ability to know everything surprises him.
Vincent Spaulding (John Clay)
The man he thought was his innocent, naive, photography-crazed assistant working for half wages, but who is in fact his nemesis using him as a tool.