[2][3] Bree was educated at Radley College near Abingdon, Oxfordshire and during the Second World War served in the RAF.

He changed his surname to Thomson-Bree after inheriting land from his great-uncle, Archdeacon William Bree.

[4][5] On stage, Bree was in the original productions of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker in London's West End in 1954; and in John Arden's Sergeant Musgrave's Dance at the Royal Court in 1959.

[6] He was also one of the founder members of Peter Hall's Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford in 1960.

[7] On screen, he was cast as Blofeld's attorney Gumbold in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and for his role as Uncle Arthur in The Jewel in the Crown.