Inspector Lestrade is a Scotland Yard detective appearing in several of the Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. In The Cardboard Box, his first initial is revealed to be G; In one of the stories Lestrade's full name is mentioned as George Lestrade.


It is observed by Holmes in A Study in Scarlet that Lestrade and another detective, Tobias Gregson, have an ongoing rivalry. In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes comments to Dr. Watson that Lestrade "is the best of the professionals, I think," meaning the professional detectives employed by Scotland Yard as opposed to himself.

Lestrade frequently is exasperated by Holmes's unconventional methods. "I am a practical man," he says in The Boscombe Valley Mystery. However, in time he does come to appreciate and respect the unofficial detective's record of success. "We're not jealous of you down at Scotland Yard," he says in The Six Napoleons. "No, sir, we are very proud of you." Watson notes in passing that this little comment is one of the few instances where Holmes is visibly moved.
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"Although he [Lestrade] is absolutely devoid of reason, he is as tenacious as a bulldog when he once understands what he has to do. " -- Sherlock Holmes

"All my instincts are one way, and all the facts are the other, and I much fear that British juries have not yet attained that pitch of intelligence when they will give the preference to my theories over Lestrade's facts."
-- Sherlock Holmes