Sir Thomas Hanbury (21 June 1832 – 9 March 1907) was an English businessman, gardener and philanthropist.

He was the fourth child and third son of a pharmaceutical chemist, Daniel Bell Hanbury (1794–1882), and his wife Rachel, née Christy, (c. 1802–1876).

From 1849 Hanbury worked for the tea brokers William James Thompson & Sons in Mincing Lane, London.

The European residents of Shanghai lived in self-governing settlements or concessions outside the city walls, in physical and social isolation from the local population.

When he finally left Shanghai in 1871, his Chinese acquaintances and friends brought him so many parting gifts that he begged them to stop.

[3] Hanbury was a member of the Anglo-American Municipal Council of Shanghai and helped set up a hospital and plant gardens in the concession.

He saw and purchased the abandoned villa of the Orengo di Roccasterone family at Mortola, where he planned to make a botanical garden with the help of his brother Daniel.

The Orengo villa was restored, and Daniel had already begun planting the gardens, which eventually extended over 18 of the 45 hectares of the estate, and came to be known as the Giardini Botanici Hanbury.