Thomas Charles Hunter was born on 24th March 1876 in Sunderland. He was the second son of Sir George Burton Hunter who had co-founded the Tyneside shipbuilding company Swan & Hunter responsible for the building of great ships including the RMS Mauretania and the RMS Carpathia. Hunter initially intended to follow his father into the family business and become a shipbuilder himself and went abroad to complete his education. He spent time in Spain where at the age of 19 he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis, which ultimately ignited his life-long interest in diseases of the chest. To aid his recovery he spent two years in Davos, Switzerland, a popular location for sanatoriums and often frequented by British citizens who could afford to make the trip to take the benefits of the alpine air.

By the age of 24 he was back in the UK and well on the way to recovery and began his medical studies at Newcastle. He qualified in 1904 with his M.B, B.S (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) and went on to gain his M.D. (Doctor of Medicine) in Durham a few years later in 1911. After a brief period of postgraduate study in Vienna, Hunter spent the majority of his working life in Newcastle, beginning in general practice with a brief stint as assistant surgeon at the Children's Hospital. He held the role of physician at the Chest Hospital as well as physician and later consulting physician at the Royal Victoria Infirmary.

However, following his own illness his interest in tuberculosis remained strong and he was heavily involved in the establishment and running of Stannington Sanatorium. Over the years he published several articles about the sanatorium and specific cases of interest with the British Medical Journal and The Lancet. He worked closely with Dr Allison, the original driving force behind the sanatorium, in its early days and was committed to his work there as a visiting physician for over thirty years, right up to his death on 15th November 1941, aged 65.

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