Baring, informally called "T.C." or "Charley" to distinguish him from the other Thomases, was the son of the Right Reverend Charles Baring, Bishop of Durham, younger son of Sir Thomas Baring, 2nd Baronet. His mother was Mary Ursula, daughter of Charles Sealy. He was educated at Harrow and Wadham College, Oxford, before becoming a partner in the family firm of Baring Brothers & Co. In 1874 Baring gave £30,000 to enable Magdalen Hall in Oxford to be refounded as Hertford College, Oxford by means of an act of parliament. He entered Parliament for Essex South in 1874, a seat he held until 1885, and later represented the City of London from 1887 to 1891. Baring also served as a Justice of the Peace for Essex, Middlesex, London and Westminster, was a member of the Royal Commission on Loss of Life at Sea from 1885 to 1887, and the author of among other works Pindar in English Rhyme and The Scheme of Epicurus: A Rendering into English Verse of the Unfinished Poem of Lucretius Entitled, De Rerum Natura. With Barings facing bankruptcy following the Panic of 1890, he returned to business life to help reorganize the partnership as a limited liability company, and served as one of its Managing Directors until his death.
