Thornley Stoker Thornley Stoker Sir William Thornley Stoker, 1st Baronet (6 March 1845 – July 1912) was an eminent Irish medical writer, anatomist and surgeon. His parents were Abraham Stoker (1799–1876), from Dublin, and the feminist Charlotte Mathilda Blake Thornley (1818–1901), who came from Ballyshannon, County Donegal. Stoker was the eldest of seven children and the brother of the writer Bram Stoker. He was educated at a private school in England and at the Royal College of Surgeons, Dublin, and Queen's College, Galway, where he obtained his M. D. degree in 1866. During the later part of his life he lived at
Bram Stoker London's high society, where he met James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (to whom he was distantly related). Working for Irving, the most famous actor of his time, and managing one of the most successful theatres in London made Stoker a notable if busy man. He was dedicated to Irving and his memoirs show he idolised him. In London Stoker also met Hall Caine, who became one of his closest friends – he dedicated "Dracula" to him. In the course of Irving's tours, Stoker travelled the world, although he never visited Eastern Europe, a setting for his