Thomas Edward Eden, surgeon, was educated at Guy's Hospital, London. He was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of London in March 1835 and practiced in Brighton. In 1912 he married Harriet Wall Reader, with whom he had 10 children. After her death in 1840 he married Elizabeth Cranfield. In May 1863 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.
Eden visited the west coast of southern Africa to investigate its guano deposits and described the results in a book, The search for nitre, and the true nature of guano, being an account of a voyage to the south-west coast of Africa; also a description of the minerals found there, and of the guano islands in that part of the world (London, 1846, 133p). The book contained an account of the coast between latitudes 22ºS and 28ºS, which the author thought had not yet been accurately described. He visited Ichaboe and Posession Island, Elizabeth Bay, Walfish Bay, and many other places along the coasts of Namaqualand and Damaraland, and described the guano trade.
