Sir George Leonard Staunton - our Sir George's father - had departed for India with Lord McCartney in January 1780. He wouldn't returned to England until January 1785
When just a few months old, young Sir George is sent with his mother to Galway, Ireland, in the care of his paternal grandmother Mrs Staunton. In September 1784 they return to England and Young Sir George meets his father for the first time.
‘My father first saw me (now between three and four years old) for the first time (January 1785). I must here affectionately record, that from this moment, down to the latest period of his life, the master purpose of my father’s mind was my education and welfare. A difference of opinion may, perhaps, exist respecting the wisdom and expediency of deviating as much as he did from the customary routine of education; but with regards the excellence of the ends he had in view there can be no question, and I should be the most ungrateful of sons if I did not here acknowledge my happiness in having had, in him and in my dear mother, the best and most affectionate of parents.’
‘My father also made, in 1791, the tour of England and a part of Scotland, for the express purpose of showing to me the arts, manufactures, and natural curiosities, of the different parts of the country through which we travelled. My mind was, he hoped, would be thus stored with new ideas, at the same time that my bodily health would be strengthened by exercise. My father was strongly impressed with the opinion that the innate curiosity of children ought not to be thrown away or corrupted with fairy tales and other extravagances of the imagination.’
From, Memoirs of Sir George Thomas Staunton, 1856
