Thomas was a painter, lithographer and possibly photographer, best known for his topographical prints of Sydney and Melbourne, and lithographic portraits.
He was born in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire and arrived at Port Phillip on 25 November 1852 in the Blorenge. Listed as a practising artist of 118 Collins Street East, Melbourne, Thomas showed four paintings at the Victorian Fine Arts Society’s 1853 exhibition.
Thomas was in Sydney by the end of 1854, the year he dated a lithograph of Manly Beach. By early 1855 he was in partnership with Scipio Clint as Clint & Thomas, Portrait and Landscape Painters, Lithographic and General Draughtsmen of Jamison Street.