Thomas was private secretary to
Stanley Baldwin, the leader of the Conservative Party, between 1929 and 1931. In the
1929 general election he stood for election as
Member of Parliament for
Llanelly (now Llanelli), but was unsuccessful. In the
1931 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament for
Hereford, which he held until 1955. He was
Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the
Dominions Secretary,
James Henry Thomas, between 1932 and 1935, to the
Colonial Secretary, Thomas and from 1936
William Ormsby-Gore, between 1935 and 1937, and to the
Foreign Secretary,
Anthony Eden, between 1937 and Eden's resignation in 1938. Thomas volunteered for military service at the outbreak of the
Second World War in 1939, but was rejected due to a permanent knee injury. From 1940 to 1943 he was a
government whip. He left the
House of Commons in 1955 and was raised to the
peerage as
Viscount Cilcennin, of Hereford in the County of Hereford, in early 1956 (the title was pronounced "Kilkennin"). He continued as First Lord of the Admiralty until September 1956, when he resigned. After resigning as First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Cilcennin accompanied the
Duke of Edinburgh on a world tour in 1956 and 1957, during which the duke opened the
1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. In 1957 he was appointed
Lord-Lieutenant of Herefordshire, a post he held until his death three years later. In 1958 he was appointed a knight of the
Order of Saint John (KStJ). In retirement, he served on the boards of several companies and as chairman of
Television Wales and the West (TWW), the commercial television contractor for South Wales and the West of England. ==Personal life==