He was born on 14 March 1859 in London and admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge in 1880 with no scholarship.
[4] Soon after the founding of the first university-affiliated institution of the world-wide Settlement movement in 1884 at Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel he made a base for himself there.
[3] He resided there from 1884 to 1891,[2] and in 1892 published an article, "The Universities' Settlement in Whitechapel" in The Economic Review which describes why it was established and how well it had meant those aims.
[1] He was a commissioner of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905–09,[6] and in 1909 published a pamphlet A council of social welfare : a note and memorandum in the report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress.
[8] A charity bearing his name, the Thomas Hancock Nunn Memorial fund, operated from 1962 to 1991.