The English philosopher L. Susan Stebbing was born December 2, 1885, the youngest of six children of barrister Alfred Charles Stebbing and Elizabeth Elstob in Wimbledon, near London. Since both her parents had died by the time she was sixteen, Stebbing was raised primarily by a guardian. As a child Stebbing suffered from an illness and was not expected to live. Her health continued to be a problem and as a consequence her education was discontinuous until 1906 when she went to Girton College, Cambridge.