Thomas Banting b.1799 son of Thomas Banting Royal Upholsterer / Undertaker
Thomas Banting b.1760 – 1770 and his wife Ann had two sons, William b. 1796 St Martins Fields and Thomas b. 1799 St Martins Fields.
William took over the family business and continued to live in London with his family. Thomas moved away to live on the South coast of England in Worthing, he is in the Kelly’s Directory Worthing living at 49 Marine Parade. He never married but his name lives on in Worthing.
When Thomas died in 1874, after various bequests, he left the residue of his estate, in trust, to found a convalescent home for gentlewomen of good social position but reduced means who were recovering from a recent illness.
St Mary’s Convalescent home opened in 1882.
It was a widely reported fact, see various links below, including Harpers Weekly in New York, where it was reported on 8th Aug 1874 that he left $100,000 in trust, for convalescents to participate in sea bathing.
Extract from Nelson Evening Mail 1874 (again the other extracts are worth a read)
I suppose we can assume from this that Thomas enjoyed taking to the water himself! The account by the British Medical Journal was published after Thomas’s death which is probably a good thing, it’s a very funny read.
Read more about the Thomas Banting Memorial Trust, which is still awarding grants.