[1] He was born at 54 South Bridge[2] in Edinburgh in 1861 the youngest (and seventh) son of Catherine Traquair and her husband, James Thin, a bookseller.

[3] The family moved to a villa at 7 Rillbank Terrace in the Grange in his youth, as his father's company grew.

[7] In 1891 Thin was elected a member of the Harveian Society of Edinburgh and served as President in 1928.

[1] He married Mary Glover Wright in 1894 and together they had three children, 2 daughters and a son.

[11] His portrait by Henry Wright Kerr is held by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.