Chain of Title page 1   2   3   4   5

Time was running out but at the last moment, Andrea's mother, Lady Duncan, bought the Arthur Conan Doyle Literary Estate. Money was no problem since Lady Duncan was the widow of an extremely wealthy British Baronet, whose mother was the last heir to the Pfizer Chemicals fortune. The problem was that Lady Duncan, a very private person, wanted to avoid publicity at all cost.

Therefore, a fairly elaborate mechanism was put in place to protect her privacy as well as to create a Trust, which was to distribute future royalties to her children, grand-children and great-grandchildren.

Andrea's father, André Milos a respected banker whom Lady Duncan trusted implicitly, was put in charge of the acquisition. A Notarized agreement dated August 2nd, 1976 protected Lady Duncan's interest with the understanding that her name as the real owner of the copyrights would only be divulged in case of André's retirement or demise. André Milos appointed Sheldon Reynolds as his agent, to close the deal with the Receiver acting for the Royal Bank of Scotland. That contract was signed on the 25th day of August 1976 in London. Sheldon Reynolds, who was under the legal obligation to assign the copyrights to André Milos, did so on the 3rd day of August 1977.

In 1977, Lady Duncan and André Milos appointed their daughter Andrea as manager of the Arthur Conan Doyle copyrights. Jonathan Clowes remained the Agent in London. Continued...