Sir Thomas William Holburn, 5th Baronet

Sir Thomas William Holburn, 5th Baronet (1793–1874), generally known as William, was a Lieutenant of the British Navy and part of the last of the Holburn baronets. He is mostly known as the owner of the collections that are currently on display in the Holburne Museum.

Life Holburn was the younger son of Sir Francis Holburn, 4th Baronet (1752–1820) and grandson of Admiral Francis Holburn (1704–1771). He joined the navy in 1805 aged 11 and served at the Battle of Trafalgar aboard the Orion. He also served on the Tonnant in the West Indies in 1808 and on the Foudroyant in Brazil. He was later made Lieutenant in 1813, and was probably pensioned from the navy after 1815 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars. He inherited the Baronetcy in 1820, when his elder brother Francis died during the Battle of Bayonne in 1814.

He obtained the inheritance from his father when he died in 1820. With this he undertook a Grant Tour of post-Napoleonic Europe in 1824 by going through France and travelling around Italy, where he obtained many of his current possessions now housed in the Holburne Museum. He later came back by way of present-day Germany (passing by early 19th-century Berlin and Cologne) as well as the Netherlands in 1825. His travel during this period was a formative time in terms of developing and defining his taste as a collector of art. a very large sum in Regency period England. With this newfound wealth he amassed a collection of paintings, silver, plate, miniatures, fine china and books. After his death in 1874, he passed his collections to his last surviving sister Mary Anne Barbara (1802–1882), who led the project to establish the Holburne museum with many of her brother's art collections.

Francis Holburn (1788–1814) Alicia Holburn (1789–1871) Catherine Holburn (1792–1873) Mary Anne Barbara Holburn (1802–1882)