Nutter Thomas was born in
Hackney, London, to Charles James Thomas and his wife Mary Matilda Thomas, née Nutter. He was educated at
Pembroke College of the
University of Cambridge and was awarded a
bachelor's degree in 1893, a
master's degree in 1895 and a
Doctor of Divinity degree in 1906. He was made deacon on 20 May 1894, by
Walsham How,
Bishop of Wakefield, at
Wakefield Cathedral; ordained priest the following year; and consecrated a bishop on
Candlemas 1906 (2 February) at
Westminster Abbey, by
Randall Davidson,
Archbishop of Canterbury. He arrived in South Australia two months later with his wife. On retirement he had spent over 34 years as a bishop, the longest for an
Anglican bishop in Australia at that time. Thomas's episcopacy as Bishop of Adelaide was contemporaneous with the 40-year incumbency at St George's Church,
Goodwood of Canon
Percy Wise, with whom he had a long and frosty relationship, Thomas being a traditional Anglican, a follower of the
Book of Common Prayer, and Wise being radically
Anglo-Catholic. ==Family==