William Thomas Brande was an organic chemist belonging to a German apothecary family which came to England early in the 18th century, attaching itself to the Courts of Hanover and London. William was born in 1788 in London. He apprenticed as an apothecary from 1802 and briefly studied linguistics and science in Göottingen. He also studied at Wilson's Anatomical School and (chemistry) at St George's Hospital. In 1805 he was attending the Royal Institution and writing medical papers. In 1809, he was ellected Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1913 was appointed to the Royal Institution. He continued as Professor at the Society of Apothecaries, lecturing on chemistry, electricity and geology. In 1816 Braude testified for English tanners in the House of Commons on the repeal of duties affecting leather manufacture, showing intimate knowledge of the latter. His practical contribution to leather chemistry was finding that tannin existed in Chinese galls in a state of purity lacking in other vegetable products. He recognized the influence of non-tannins on tanning and considered that the lack of extractive matter in the Chinese galls would render them unfit tanning agents, also finding that leather produced by their infusion was extremely brittle. He saw the galls as a primary source of gallic acid. The experimental work may have been Faraday's and may have led to his work on the isolation of gallic acid from galls, published in 1819.