Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Peaky Blinders season 6.The Shelby family is the most important group inPeaky Blinders, but it’s also one of the most complicated in the acclaimed gangster show. ThoughPeaky Blindersis based on a real gang, most of the Shelby family is entirely fabricated. While that grants the series quite a bit of creative freedom, it also means that their family tree can get quite complicated. Family is incredibly important to the show, however, so understanding who’s related in thecast ofPeaky Blindersis what several of the show’s most brutal betrayals and startling revelations are built upon.
Witheach season ofPeaky Blinders, new characters were added to the Shelby family. Whether through marriage, birth, or discovering long-estranged children, the legendary Birmingham-based family just kept getting bigger and more complicated. The Shelbys also had a series of cousins and uncles on their Romani side who were either very distantly related or simply very good family friends, which makes it even harder to tell who’s actually related to whom. As complicated as it is, most of the characters inPeaky Blindershave a fairly simple blood connection to one another, and the ones who don’t can easily be explained.
Polly Gray
Spouse: Unnamed Husband
Polly Gray (Helen McCrory) was the sister of Arthur Shelby Sr. and the aunt of most of the cast ofPeaky Blinders. Though she was their aunt, Polly effectively raised the main Shelby siblings.Prior to the start of the show, Polly was married to an unknown Romani man, and she kept his surname after his death. She had two children with her late husband, Michael and Anna Gray, who were both taken away from her care by the English government. Anna died in Australia, but Polly was able to reunite with Michael. InPeaky Blindersseason 6, Polly was murdered by the Irish Republican Army.
Arthur Shelby Sr.
Spouse: Unnamed Wife
Arthur Shelby Sr. (Tommy Flanagan) was the patriarch of the Shelby family and the father of the main group of Shelby siblings. The elder Arthur Shelby was an absent father who left his children in Polly’s care.InPeaky Blindersseason 1, he reunited with Arthur Shelby Jr. in a futile attempt to scam him out of money. Aside from parenting the main cast of the show, Arthur Shelby Sr. had very little impact onPeaky Blinders, and he died offscreen in 1924. The siblings did not grieve his death.
Arthur Shelby Jr.
Spouse: Linda Shelby
Arthur Shelby Jr. (Paul Anderson) was the firstborn son and oldest of the main Shelby siblings.Despite being the oldest, Arthur was not the leader of the Peaky Blinders or the legitimate Shelby Company Limited, and he instead acted as Tommy’s muscle. Arthur married Linda (Kate Phillips) beforePeaky Blindersseason 3, and they had one son, Billy, together. Linda and Arthur were eventually separated after her religious views conflicted too much with Arthur and the Peaky Blinders' illegal activity. As ofPeaky Blindersseason 6, Arthur was still alive and working with Tommy.
Thomas Shelby
Spouses: Grace Burgess, Lizzie Stark
Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy), better known as Tommy, was the second oldest brother of the Shelby siblings, but he rose to lead the Peaky Blinders. Grace Burgess (Annabelle Wallis), who spied on the Peaky Blinders and seduced Tommy, revealed that she was pregnant with his first legitimate son, Charles.Tommy then married Grace inPeaky Blindersseason 3, though Grace would soon be killed during one of Luca Changretta’s (Adrien Brody) attempts on Tommy’s life. Tommy would later marry former prostitute Lizzie Stark (Natasha O’Keeffe) and have a daughter, Ruby, with her.
Six other unnamed children
Laurence Gray
None
Peaky Blindersseason 6 further complicated Tommy’s place in the Shelby family tree. After Ruby fell ill, Tommy discovered that a Romani woman had put a curse on her, and she died of consumption.After Ruby’s funeral, Tommy also learned that he had an illegitimate son with Zelda, a woman he knew before he was drafted to fight in World War I. Tommy accepted his firstborn son, Erasmus “Duke” Shelby (Conrad Khan), into the Shelby family, and he became a major member of the gang.
John Shelby
Spouses: Martha Shelby, Esmé Lee
Though John Shelby (Joe Cole) was the second-youngest brother of the Shelby siblings, he had the most children. Prior toPeaky Blindersseason 1, John was married to a woman named Martha, and they had four children together. After Martha’s death,John couldn’t care for his children alone, so Tommy arranged a marriage between him and a Romani woman named Esmé Lee (Aimee-Ffion Edwards). John and Esmé had another three children together, all of whom remained unnamed. John was shot and killed by Luca Changretta’s men inPeaky Blindersseason 4, and Esmé took their children to live with a Romani group.
Ada Thorne
Spouse: Freddy Thorne
Ada Thorne (Sophie Rundle) was the only daughter and second youngest of the main Shelby siblings.InPeaky Blindersseason 1, Ada married Tommy’s wartime friend and Communist organizer Freddy Thorne, and she kept his surname after his death. Ada and Freddy had one child, who they named Karl. Later, inPeaky Blindersseason 4, Ada began a relationship with Ben Younger (Kingsley Ben-Adir). Though they didn’t officially marry, Ada gave birth to his daughter, Elizabeth Younger, just after Ben was assassinated for investigating Oswald Mosley (Sam Claflin). As ofPeaky Blindersseason 6, Ada has not remarried.
Michael Gray
Spouse: Gina Nelson
Michael Gray (Finn Cole) was Polly Gray’s only living child and the only living member of her branch of the Shelby family tree.As a child, Michael was taken from Polly’s custody because the police found an illegal spirit still in her home. He was then raised in the English countryside, and his adoptive family renamed him Henry Johnson. When Polly tracked Michael down inPeaky Blindersseason 2, he decided to move to Birmingham and join the Peaky Blinders.
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Eventually, inPeaky Blindersseason 4, Tommy effectively exiled Michael to the United States. Though it was a punishment, Tommy allowed Michael to stay in the Shelby family business and expand the company’s influence to America.Michael later married an American woman named Gina Nelson (Anya Taylor-Joy), and they had a son named Laurence together. InPeaky Blindersseason 6, Tommy killed Michael after a lengthy battle between the cousins.
Finn Shelby
Spouse: Mary Bone
Finn Shelby (Harry Kirton) was the youngest of the Shelby siblings and the last child of Arthur Shelby Sr. In the early seasons ofPeaky Blinders, Finn was too young to contribute much to the gang’s operation beyond acting as a lookout. As he aged, he took a more involved role in the gang, though he was also looked down upon. InPeaky Blindersseason 6, Finn married Mary Bone (Abbie Hern).Duke Shelby eventually banished Finn from the family after he refused to kill Billy (Emmett J. Scanlan), the informant who told the IRA about the plan to assassinate Oswald Mosley.
Erasmus “Duke” Shelby
Spouse: Unmarried
Duke Shelby, born Erasmus, was technically the firstborn son of Tommy, though his father was unaware he existed untilPeaky Blindersseason 6. Duke lived with his mother, Zelda, in a Romani group for 19 years, and as such didn’t know any of the other Shelby family members.Despite being just seven years younger, Duke is technically Finn’s nephew. He also displayed quite a few similarities to Tommy despite not knowing his father for the majority of his life, such as their shared ability to predict others' actions and willingness to listen to people like Charlie Strong.
Peaky Blinders
Cast
Peaky Blinders is a historical crime drama created and written by Steven Knight and starring Cillian Murphy, Sam Neill, and Helen McCrory. The television show is based on the gang, Peaky Blinders, a group that banded together after the end of World War I.
