Thoby Stephen

Who was Thoby Stephen?

Julian Thoby Stephen, known as the Goth, was the elder brother of several members of the Bloomsbury Group, namely his sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf and his younger brother Adrian.

Thoby Stephen was the eldest son of Leslie Stephen and Julia Prinsep. As the result of his mother's first marriage, he was also a half-brother of George and Gerald Duckworth. He was educated at Clifton College, after failing to gain a place at Eton. However, this did not hold him back, since he won an exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge from Clifton. He was a friend of Lytton Strachey, who was enchanted by his masculinity and introduced him to the "Reading Club". He was described as "over six feet tall and of somewhat ponderous build."

Stephen is credited with starting the Bloomsbury Group's Thursday evening gatherings.

Expected to distinguish himself, he contracted typhoid at the age of 26 while on holiday in Greece, and died shortly thereafter. Vanessa Bell's eldest son, the poet Julian Bell was named after him.