SHERLOCK Holmes' brother-in-law has won a place of honour in the town of his birth.

While Conan Doyle created the famous Victorian supersleuth, his sister's husband produced the comic parallel - gentleman thief Raffles and his accomplice Harry "Bunny'' Manders.

A portrait of Raffles author, Middlesbrough-born Earnest William Hornung, was yesterday unveiled in the town's Dorman Museum.

The Middlesbrough Heritage Group plans to place a plaque outside "Willy" Hornung's former home in Marton Road, Middlesbrough.

His stories of the cricket-playing gentleman rogue A J Raffles were best-sellers in the early 1900s, and have gone on to be portrayed on stage, silver screen and television.

Art expert Peter Nahum, well-known for his appearances on BBC's Antiques Roadshow, gave his professional advice about the 1906 portrait and agreed to bid when it came up for auction.

The portrait, which shows Hornung in his 40s, was bought for a "four-figure sum'' thanks to grants from independent art charity The Art Fund and the Archives Council Purchase Grant Fund.

Art Fund director David Barrie said: "This perceptive portrait sheds light on one of Middlesbrough's best known writers - the creator of Raffles, the gentleman thief.''

He said the striking painting, by Albert Chevalier Tayler, is the only known depiction of the author and should hang in the Dorman.

"It's the perfect home for a painting of such a key player in Middlesbrough's 19th Century civic life.''

The author's brother, Theodore, was a ward councillor in Middlesbrough, while his father audited the accounts of the Middlesbrough Improvement Commissioners, forerunners of the town council. Willy married Constance Aimee Monica Doyle in 1893 and lived in London for most of their married life before moving to Sussex. He died in France in 1921, where he is buried.