The Bimetallic Question was founded in May 1979 by two Montreal Sherlockians, David Dowse and Wilfrid de Freitas. They were each looking for others with whom they could share their interest in Holmes, his biographer Watson, their scribe Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and, generally, all things concerning Victorian England. The new society took its name, The Bimetallic Question, from "The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans", first published in The Strand Magazine of December 1908, and collected in His Last Bow. It was selected on account of the reference to Mycroft's expertise in various areas, including "... the Navy, India, Canada and the bi-metallic question." this, roughly 60-page, duplicated compilation of articles, pictures,, newspapers cuttings, etc. was published to celebrate the society's tenth anniversary.