Sir Thomas Newenham Deane was born on the 15 of June in 1828 near
Cork,
Ireland. He was the son of
Sir Thomas Deane, an architect, and Eliza O’Callaghan Newenham, Sir Thomas Deane's second wife. Deane was born as the oldest of 3 siblings. As the only son Deane had two younger sisters, Susanna Adelaide (Ada) and Olivia Louisa. From his father's first marriage the three siblings had a step-brother John Connellan and a step-sister Julia Connellan. Deane is described as being a shy and reserved child who struggled with a stammer. The firm had grown to become a successful business and one of the most prominent practises in Ireland. Deane was schooled in
England in the public
Rugby School. During his childhood, he had inherited an interest in sailing from his father. This led to one of his earliest aspirations in wanting to eventually join the navy. This aspiration was nonetheless denied by his father, and following primary school in England, Deane, in 1846, travelled back to Ireland to attend
Trinity College Dublin (TCD). In 1849 he graduated from TCD with a BA. A year after graduation, Deane moved back to Cork where he married Henrietta Manly. While Deane after graduation had explored the possibility of making a living as an artist, he instead entered his father's business initially working on drawings for Queens College Cork, now
University College Cork. Throughout his youth, Deane showed an interest in painting, especially painting with
watercolours. And immediately after graduating from TCD, he worked towards establishing himself as an artist. This he did despite his father Sir Thomas Deane's lack of approval. Sir Thomas Deane instead saw his son's future as being in the family business. As years went on, Deane became a more integrated part of the architecture firm, a practice he officially joined in 1850 and later was to take over after his father died in 1871. Throughout his career, Deane never dropped his interest in arts and was a firm believer in architecture would improve by combining education in architecture with studies of
fine arts. Towards the end of his life, he managed to become a regularly figured artist in the
Royal Hibernian Academy in
Dublin. ==Career==