[1] He was born in January 1783 in the parish of St Peter in the East, Oxford, second son of Dr James Bandinel by his wife Margaret, née Dumaresq.
From 1824 to his retirement in 1841, he received an annual allowance from Parliament, together with a lump sum of £1000, raised from the sale of condemned slave ships.
[2] Bandinel married, in 1813, Marian Eliza, daughter of Rev Dr Robert Hunter of Okeford Fitzpaine, Dorset.
The pair separated under two years later and their young son, James, spent his childhood in six-month stays with each parent.
He was instrumental in the construction of the Thames Tunnel (1828) through his close friendship with—and financial support of—Marc Isambard Brunel.