Arthur Hastings

Captain Arthur Hastings is the best friend of Hercule Poirot. He was once a military captain during World War I, but was wounded and returned to England to become Poirot's assistant and an amateur sleuth. He also befriended Miss Lemon, Poirot's secretary.

Biography
See Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Hastings 

Hastings had met Poirot in Belgium several years before their meeting on July 16, 1916 at Styles Court, Essex, which is their first encounter in literature.[1] The two remained friends right up to Poirot's death, although there is little evidence regarding their possible meetings between 1937 and 1975, but we know that Hastings at least saw Poirot a year before the latter's death. Hastings, while being no great detective himself, serves Poirot in many ways. A former British Army officer in World War I, he is extremely brave and often used by Poirot for physical duties such as catching and subduing a criminal. Poirot likes to tease Hastings about being dim-witted at times, but he clearly enjoys the Captain's company.

Hastings represents the traditional English gentleman -- not too bright but absolutely fastidious, a throwback to the Victorian era gentleman who is always concerned about "fair play". Unlike Poirot, who is not above lying, surreptitiously reading other people's letters, eavesdropping, etc., in his quest to solve a case, Hastings is absolutely horrified by such things and usually refuses to do these things even when asked to do so by Poirot.

He is chivalrous as well, possessing a pronounced weakness for pretty women with auburn hair (a fact that gets him and Poirot into trouble more than once). Despite his preference for auburn hair, and his Victorian ideas about not marrying outside one's class, he eventually falls in love with a dark-haired music hall actress, singer, and acrobat, Dulcie Duveen. They meet in the story Murder on the Links, the second full-length Poirot novel. Poirot plays a rather significant part in uniting the couple. Hastings then acquires a ranch in Argentina and settles down to a life as a ranchholder.

Hastings's appearances in Poirot's later novels are restricted to a few cases in which he participates on his periodic returns to England from Argentina. In the course of The Big Four Dulcie's life is threatened by members of an international conspiracy, and he is forced to risk Poirot's life in return for her promised safety. At the end of Dumb Witness Hastings acquires a pet terrier called Bob. In other respects there is very little personal detail regarding him in these novels, until Curtain: Poirot's Last Case, which is presumed to take place a great many years later.

In Curtain we learn that he and 'Cinders' or 'Cinderella' as he calls Dulcie, have four children: two sons and two daughters. One son joins the Royal Navy, while the other one and his wife manage the ranch after Dulcie's death. His daughter Grace is married to a British officer stationed in India, and his youngest child, Judith, who is also his favourite, appears as a character in Curtain. Judith marries Dr. John Franklin, a medical researcher and moves to Africa with him. It is possible that Hastings himself also takes a second wife: Elizabeth Litchfield. Poirot certainly suggests that he should, in the Postscript to Curtain, but there is no further evidence either way.