Thomas was born on 10 April 1912 in a village in
Westcotes,
Leicester. He was the fourth of six children to his mother, P. M. Thomas, and father, J. A. Thomas. His father was a
priest. He was educated at the
University of Cambridge. He started working at
Saint Andrew's Secondary School in 1934. During
World War II, Thomas temporarily stopped working as Saint Andrew's to serve in the war. Thomas was stationed at a hill known as the Kamu Death Camp. In 1944, he was selected to go to Japan. He first took a truck to Singapore and was kept at a
POW-camp at Zion Road. Afterwards, he went to Japan using a captured American ship called the
SS President Harrison. Whilst they were travelling, American
submarines off the coast of Vietnam started launching
torpedoes at them, sinking a few ships. His ship was later hit and after it sank, he went onto a Japanese
lifeboat. Afterwards, he jumped off and swam, encountering another group of British soldiers around an overturned lifeboat. By morning, they got the lifeboat upright and had an English-speaking Japanese officer with them. Thomas and his lifeboat were later rescued by a Japanese airplane due to the Japanese officer on board. He was taken to a
hospital ship with about 600 survivors on board. When he made it to Japan, Thomas was taken to a
quarantine island. He worked on the island and became a
corporal. He worked 8-hour days and later fell sick, being transported to the camp hospital and later to a different shelter, due to frequent
bombings from the Americans. He later witnessed the
bombing of Nagasaki. Afterwards, he took a hospital ship back to
Southampton, Hampshire. After staying there for a year, he returned to Singapore in 1947 and continued working at Saint Andrew's Secondary School. == Career ==