Colonel Sir Thomas Reade (1782 – 1 August 1849) was a British Army officer during the Napoleonic Wars, known also as a collector.

[1] In 1799, at the age of sixteen, he ran away from home to enlist in the Army and participated in campaigns in Holland, Egypt and America, as well as postings across Europe.

On 29 April 1841, he convinced Ahmad I ibn Mustafa, the bey (ruler) of Tunis, to abolish the slave trade.

[2] Reade was also a scholar and antiquarian and collected a range of artefacts, much of which are held in the British Museum today.

[4] The team commissioned to remove the inscription did it in such a maladroit way that the two upper floors of the mausoleum collapsed as a result.