According to the Northumberland Record Office, Thomas Addison was baptised on 13 April 1794. No address is available, simply Long Benton, as was usual at that time. In 1815, Addison graduated in medicine at Edinburgh, then settled in London, where he became associated with the establishment of the medical reputation of Guy's Hospital.
Addison was celebrated for his skill as a diagnostician and his great abilities as a teacher. He also wrote important papers on pneumonia, tuberculosis and skin diseases. His fame nowadays, however, rests on his original descriptions of a disease of the supra-renal capsules, Addison's disease (of which Jane Austen probably died in 1817). He also described pernicious (or Addisonian) anaemia.
Addison was buried at Lanercost Priory, Cumbria, close to the Roman Wall. The Longbenton County Modern School was dedicated to him in 1962.