Wounded in the shoulder in Afghanistan war and invalided out with problems including psychosomatic leg wound.
His therapist thinks he is haunted by the war but Mycroft says she has got it wrong, that John really misses the war and his intermittent tremor in his left hand goes away when he is under stress.
Following his therapist's instructions he starts a blog but doesn't do anything with it until after he meets Sherlock and then he uses it to discuss Sherlock's cases.
He has an older sister, called Harry for Harriet, who is married to a woman but has left her. Harry is an alcoholic. In Doyle's second novel The Sign of Four Harry is an older brother who had recently died and Watson had inherited his watch which Harry had initially inherited from their father. The original older brother like the new older sister was an alcoholic.
John is abducted by the bomber in "The Great Game" and a bomb is attached to him which gives Moriarity a hold over Sherlock. In the "Empty Herse" John is kidnapped and put into a bonfire near Guy Fawkes Day from which Sherlock has to race to save him. In "The Hounds of Baskerville" it is Sherlock who uses John as a guinea pig for an experiment.
He played the clarinet at school, John claims in a job interview in "The Bind Banker".
The H in his name is for Hamish which he refuses to tell Sherlock for some time. In the Original Arthur Conan Doyle Canon Watson's middle initial appears "only three times..." (source: The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes with notes by Leslie S. Klinger p. 7). "Dorothy L. Sayers, in her classic article "Dr. Watson's Christian Name," argues that the 'H' stands for 'Hamish,' a Scottish equivalent to 'James' (see 'Man with the Twisted Lip' for an instance in which Watson's wife refers to him as 'James')." (Ibid)
Dr. John H. Watson served in Afghanistan with the "Fifth Northumberland Fusilers" (the same in Sherlock as in A Study in Scarlet. In Doyle's first story about Sherlock Homes, Watson's title is given as Assistant Surgeon.
Who Is Dr. John H. Watson (actor describes character, plus scenes) BBC promo
John Watson (Martin Freeman) and Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch)
John H. Watson embarrasses easily and in the second episode he still isn't completely at home in civilian life.
John Watson (Martin Freeman)
Later he tells Sherlock, "I didn't get the shopping."
"What? Why not?"
"Because I had a row, in the shop, with a chip and pin machine."
"You - you had a row with a machine?"
"Well, it kinda just stood there while I shouted abuse at it."
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