Dr Thomas Rhodes Armitage (2 April 1824 – 23 October 1890) was born in Tilgate, Sussex into a family of wealthy Yorkshire industrialists.
Armitage 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 due to deteriorating eyesight, eventually becoming blind.
Armitage worked tirelessly for the adoption of Braille and in 1868 formed the British and Foreign Society for Improving the Embossed Literature of the Blind now The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB).
In 1871 Armitage met Francis Campbell and together they established the Royal Normal College and Academy of Music for the Blind (now The Royal National College for the Blind).
Armitage died on 23 October 1890, aged 66, following a horse-riding accident in Ireland.