Thomas Stanley Pearson was born in Pendleton on 27 May 1899. His father, Thomas Alfred Pearson, was the younger brother of William Henry Pearson, a yarn agent in Manchester. Thomas Stanley Pearson served his country during the First World War. On his return to Britain, he completed his Textile Industry studies at Manchester Municipal College of Technology, which later became UMIST. He studied there between 1922 and 1926. Following his studies he travelled to India, Singapore and Malaysia. In India he worked for R J Wood & Co of Mumbai and Delhi, merchants who specialised in textile piece goods including white shirtings, long cloth mulls (super fine woven cotton) and dyed piece goods. His work included checking prices of goods from Indian factories, such as those operated by David Sassoon & Co in Mumbai, Kolkatta and China. He lived briefly in Australia and New Zealand after the Second World War before returning to Britain to take up a clerical post in the Civil Service in London. He retired to the home of his elder sister in Blackpool during the 1960s, and died there in 1985.