Banton, George

Born deaf at Finsbury, Middlesex, England. Privately tutored beginning about age 6 at the I.S. Woodman Private Academy for the Deaf and Dumb in Kilburn, but withdrew at age 10 probably because of the high cost of private education. At age 11 (1823), entered the public Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb on Kent Road, London, until 1827. Trained as a teacher there, he began teaching duties there in 1827, still only 14 years old, and continued for 50 years until retiring in 1876 due to failing health. Died from a combination of epilepsy and heart disease; buried at Stoke Newington. Biography by Peter R. Brown is Banton (1994).