15[BBB]: Educ at Christs College, Finchley and RMC Sandhurst. The system of purchase of comissions had not been abolished when he passed out of the RMC, and his father could not afford to buy him one; he therefore became an Asst Conservator of Forests in the Madras Woods & Forests Dept, Feb 1871, continuing there for a year. In July the purchase system was abolished and he was commissioned as Ensign, 54th Foot (afterwards 2 Bn Dorset Regt) on 28 Oct 1871 and joined at Jullundur, Punjab, serving afterwards at Morar (Gwalior).

He transferred to the Bengal Staff Corps in Nov 1876 and was posted to the 44th NI, later to be 44th Gurkha Light Infantry, which was employed in Assam largely against the Naga tribes, which were in those days very troublesome. Thomas was on active service every year for the next ten years, principally on escort duty with Political Officers. In Oct 1879 the Bn was on its way to take part in the Afghan War, when it was recalled to undertake punitive operations against a tribe which had murdered a Political Agent, and was in revolt.

This involved the assault and capture of a strong hill fort, Khonoma, near Kohima and for his part in this action Thomas, who led the assault with a Lt Ridgeway, was recommended for a Victoria Cross, as also was Ridgeway. It was, however, awarded to Lt Ridgeway only, who was wounded, on the grounds that two awards could not be made among so few officers. Thomas was then left with the the 2ic of the Regt and 200 men to destroy the fort; they were practically besieged by the Nagas, and were not relievd until after nearly three months of very difficult conditions. Thomas was mentioned in despatches, and received the IGSM, with clasp "Naga 1879-80".

Returning home on leave at the end of 1884, he was recalled to India because of one of the periodic Russian war scares. Before sailing, he m at Blackheath, 30 Mar 1885, Selina Mary, dau of James Whicher, Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals, Royal Navy; she accompanied him to India and they began their married life there at Dibrugarh in the extreme north-east corner of the country.

In the 3rd Burma War the Regt entered Burma with the force from the north. Thomas was engaged in the Kubo Field Force, and at Fort Kendat, from Nov 1886; in an expedition against dacoits at the end of the year; and in command of the garrison at Tammu until Aug 1887. Clasp "Burma 1885-87", and for subsequent operations he received the clasps for "Burma 1887-9" and "Burma 1889-92". In March 1891, he was 2ic of a force which was sent up to Manipur, a native state between Assam and Burma, to effect the arrest of the ruler's brother, who had been fomenting rebellion. For the subsequent events which developed around him, refer to the Chronicles of that period which described how he eventually came to be removed from the service on the score of 'an error of judgment in failing to carry out the withdrawal properly'. He was in fact made a scapegoat, and was undoubtedly a very hardly used man.

As recorded above, he and his wife started their family in Dibrugarh in NE India; they had issue : Ethel Selina Hastings, Eileen Lucy, Kathleen Minnie, Digby Whicher, Edward Bulmer Whicher and Thomas Whicher. After his enforced retirement, with a captain's pension but without the rank of major to which he was then entitled, he became an Army crammer, an occupation which ceased with the outbreak of war in 1914, and he then acted as secretary for the Army Scripture Readers Society. He engaged in much voluntary church, public and philanthropic work; among other things he was for a number of years a Diocesan Lay Reader in the diocese of Southwark. He d in London on 25 Dec 1933, from a chill caught while he was watching a football match played by a boys' club in which he was actively interested.