He died the day my dad was born. 7/7/1930.
Sad case of the loss of his son caused him to become obsessed with contacting the dead, seances, mediums, spirit photography and automatic writing. Son Kingsley died in WWI.
Harry Houdini was an advocate of debunking the fakery of mediums and the occult charlatans and he ran into hostility from Doyle as he tried to convince him but then they ended up becoming friends.