# Tobias Gregson — A Study in Scarlet character guide

> Tobias Gregson in A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Gregson, VI Tobias Gregson, Mr. Gregson

**First appearance:** 0003-iii-the-lauriston-gardens-mystery

## Snapshot

A Scotland Yard detective who works the Lauriston Gardens case by shoe leather and hunches, forever racing Holmes to the answer and forever arriving breathless.

## Who they are

Gregson is one of the Yard's two rival investigators on the Brixton murder, a fair-haired, self-satisfied man who traces a hat to a boarding house and calls it genius. He treats detection as a matter of legwork and luck, and his eagerness to announce an arrest before the evidence is settled makes him both useful and faintly comic. His confident progress gives Holmes a foil and the reader a running measure of how far ahead the amateur really is.

## In the story

### [III: The Lauriston Gardens Mystery](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_study_in_scarlet_se/chapters/iii-the-lauriston-gardens-mystery)

Scotland Yard detective who invited Holmes to the scene and is working the case.

### [VI: Tobias Gregson Shows What He Can Do](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_study_in_scarlet_se/chapters/vi-tobias-gregson-shows-what-he-can-do)

Visits Holmes to report his investigation: he traced Drebber's boarding house, interviewed the Charpentiers, and arrested Arthur Charpentier, presenting a theory that Arthur killed Drebber.

### [Light in the Darkness](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_study_in_scarlet_se/chapters/vii-light-in-the-darkness)

Upset his whiskey and water upon hearing of Stangerson's murder; impatient with Holmes's hints and demands the assassin's name.

### [VI: A Continuation of the Reminiscences of John Watson, M.D.](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_study_in_scarlet_se/chapters/vi-a-continuation-of-the-reminiscences-of-john-watson-m-d)

Present at the capture and accompanies Hope to the station.

### [The Conclusion](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_study_in_scarlet_se/chapters/vii-the-conclusion)

Mentioned as being wild about Hope's death and credited by the press for the capture.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_study_in_scarlet_se/characters/tobias_gregson
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_study_in_scarlet_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/a_study_in_scarlet_se/characters