Thomas Armitage

Who was Thomas Armitage?

Thomas Rhodes Armitage was a British physician, and founder of the Royal National Institute of Blind People.

He was born on 2 April 1824 at Tilgate in Sussex into a family of wealthy Yorkshire industrialists, the son of James Armitage and Anne Elizabeth Armitage née Rhodes, of Farnley Hall, just south of Leeds, Yorkshire. His great-grandfather James bought Farnley Hall from Sir Thomas Danby in 1799, and in 1844 four Armitage brothers founded the Farnley Ironworks, utilising the coal, iron and fireclay on their estate. His brother Edward Armitage was a member of the Royal Academy.

Armitage was the uncle of Robert Armitage, the great-uncle of Robert Selby Armitage, and first cousin twice removed of Edward Leathley Armitage.

He was raised at Avranches in France, and at Frankfurt and Offenbach in Germany. He attended the Sorbonne and King's College London. He became a physician, practising at the Marylebone Dispensary, in the Crimean War, and as a private consultant in London. He was forced to abandon his medical career because of deteriorating vision, eventually becoming blind.